A Painful Truth In Love
by Nectar of Life
Summary: Lincoln's trust is completely shattered after a traumatizing betrayal by one of his sisters. How does he deal with it?
1. Chapter 1 - Loudfunding

Chapter One - Loudfunding

* * *

Emotions are funny things. Often they come unannounced and unsolicited. Sometimes they can be justified, and sometimes they cannot. No one is really sure where they come from. Some say its endorphins in your brain setting off a reaction, others say its magic stemming from the heart. We may never truly know their origin, but one thing can be certain. Emotions can bring forth some great pain. Pain for the one feeling them, and pain for the people in the surveying area. But what is the most painful of emotions? Fear? Angst? Sorrow? All would be good choices, but only one emotion can bring upon all of these at once.

Love.

It was an average morning for Lincoln Loud. That is to say, it wasn't average at all. Almost as soon as he opened his door, there was utter chaos. Twins fighting over trivial matters, potentially catastrophic chemical explosions heard in the distance, booby traps set to every door, glaring rock music rattling the walls, the sound of cellphone clicks, and a line for the restroom that seemed impossibly long. In an ordinary setting, might suspect that this was some sort of early morning house party, but to Lincoln, this was home. And despite the occasional complaint, deep down he loved his crazy mornings. After all, the ones causing all the commotion was his family, and he loved his family more than just about anything.

He went about his morning routine with a smile on his face. He was happier than usual this morning, for today was going to be one of the best days of his life. A new release of his favorite comic, Ace Savvy, and a new episode of his favorite television show just happened to coincide on this very day. This has never happened before, and he just knew everything would be perfect in the world.

As he was about to head out the front door, he heard his name being called.

"Hey Lincoln, gotta sec?"

He turned to see his sister Luan approaching him.

"Yeah?" He asked

"I'm a few dollars short for some new props i need, so I was wondering if I could knock some CENTS out of you. HAHA! Get it? _CENTS?_ " She said while giggle to herself.

 _That one was worse than usual_ He thought as he let out a massive groan. He had $20 on him, given that lunch at school was $5 and the comic would be $6, he could afford to loan out some money.

"Yeah, I guess I could lend you some. How much do you need?"

'About four bucks, but some DOE should work fine too! Get it? _DOE_ "

Lincoln disregarded the joke and handed her four dollars. Anything to save him from another pun.

"Thanks a _million_!" She said happily as she walked out the door.

Lincoln was puzzled for a second, not sure if that was actually a pun or not. He didn't give her a million dollars, and he highly doubted she would ever give him that much back. He pondered it until he became embarrassed by how long he had spent thinking it out.

 _Whatever, I still have $16! That's plenty, I may even have some left over for a pack of gum._ He thought happily as he ran out the door, his smile as bright as ever. He would just have to get home from school and then take his bike to the comic store. No problem, anyone can manage that.

On the ride to school, he sat in between his younger twin sisters Lola and Lana as they argued.

"It was my dollar from my birthday!" Lana Yelled

"No, it's my dollar left over from my last pageant prize!" Lola shouted, fists clenched.

Money was a rare thing for there family, so there was always a twinge of hostility among the siblings whenever a dispute of ownership came into question.

From listening to it, Lincoln was able to piece together that at some point that morning they had both seen a dollar on the tiny tea table in their room. Neither twin was 100% sure it was theirs, but that couldn't mean they would just let the other have it. And thus, a morning long bout had begun. Both girls tugging on the dollar as it sat in front of him.

" _Well, there's only one real way to fix this"_ He thought with a sign as he reached into his pocket.

"Hold it you two." He said as he put his hand out and grabbed the dollar, stopping them from ripping it.

"Hey! If you think you're stealing our dollar, you've got another thing coming to you!" Lola hissed, her eyes making the deadliest V shape possible for a 6 year old girl.

"Relax, that isn't what I'm doing at all. Rather, I was doing this-" Lincoln produced a second dollar and handed one to each girl. "Now you both have one." He said with a small grin.

Both girls stared wide eyed at the dollar they each held in their hand. Neither one was really sure how to react, could their only brother have gone crazy or something?

'T...thanks." Lola said in a quiet voice, eyes still on the dollar.

"Yeah….thank you." Uttered Lana in an exact parallel.

Lincoln sat back satisfied and enjoyed the now calm atmosphere of the van for the remainder of the ride. He didn't want to give up his personal savings like that, but if it helped his sisters get along, it was worth it.

He had fifteen dollars left. After everything he should still have four left. Not ideal, but maybe he could buy himself some cereal later. That'd be pretty cool.

As he started to walk towards the school building with his younger siblings, he heard a sound he knew all too well.

"SIGH~"

It was his sister Lucy. Her face was covered by her long black bangs and her face looked almost expressionless. But Lincoln knew his sister well enough to notice when something was wrong. Call it a big brother's instinct.

"What's wrong Lucy?"

"I lost my black pen, now I won't be able to write anything."

"Couldn't you just use a pencil?"

"What's the point of using erasable graphite? All writing should be permanent, like the eternal slumber of death."

"...right." Lincoln loved her dearly, but she had a habit of being...depressing at times, and this was only amplified when she was upset by something.

He knew the school store would have a pens at a fairly cheap price. He reached into his pocket and handed her a dollar. "Here, this should be enough to get yourself a new pen from the school store."

"Thanks brother." She said in her usual monotonous tone and walked off, a sense of happiness emitting for her gloomy look.

" _Remember Lincoln, they're worth it in the end."_ He thought to himself as he walked to class.

The first few classes of the day went by without a hitch. There was a pop quiz in math class, but he was prepared for it ahead of time. He studied extra hard the night before so that he would be able to slack off tonight. The thought of that kept him grinning like a mad cat all through class.

Once the lunch bell rang he walked out happily with his best friend Clyde. Both of them talking about how awesome the night was going to be. Due to Clyde's father's having a big dinner event at home, he had to watch the show from his own home rather than with Lincoln, but they had already decided in advance that they would be talking about it all night over their walkie talkies.

Just as they were about to reach the cafeteria, something whizzed passed their heads faster than they could react to followed by a mushy crash.

"What on Earth was that?" Clyde asked, ducking his head?

"I don't know, but something tells me it wasn't good." Lincoln said worriedly.

They look over and saw what looked like a pink blob of glass and liquids with a baseball stuck in it.

"Lynn! Your baseball destroyed my experiment!" Yelled a lispy voice Lincoln knew all too well. He look to the other side and saw his younger sister Lisa arguing with his older sister Lynn.

"Well your….whatever it is ruined my ball! How am I supposed to practice with it now?" Lynn said furiously.

"Oh please, I'm sure there is a sufficient number of baseballs on the premises" Lisa said, crossing her arms.

"Use a communal ball? That's completely throw off my pitch! You need to get me a new one!"

"More importantly, how are you going to replace the parts in my experiment! It was you who threw the ball."

"I didn't throw it, I tripped on my shoelace and it went flying!"

Lincoln could see a crowd forming as the fight continued. This was bad. They could argue at home all they wanted, but he knew both of them would only be embarrassed later if they continued to do this in public. Without thinking he ran up to them and stood in-between the two with his arms out to separate them.

"Hey hey, let's just take this easy. Lisa, what is it you need for this experiment?" He asked with sweat starting to form on his forehead.

Lisa looked back at her ruined mess and thought for a second, then turned back and replied by uttering a long list of words that Lincoln and Lynn couldn't even comprehend.

"How the heck am I supposed to get all that stuff? Rob a chemical plant?" Lynn uttered, throwing her arms up.

"I suppose I should just call it by its street name, bubble gum." Lisa said simply,

Both Lincoln and Lynn looked at each other before turning their eyes back to lisa.

"You mean all of that is just regular bubble gum? Lincoln asked in a confused tone.

"Well, there are some _other_ ingredients that I won't delve into, but I can get those myself." She mutter, obviously hiding whatever disturbing things were inside the experiment.

"And what exactly are you doing anyway?"

"That's a need to know basis!"

"Ok Ok, here!" Lincoln said with a sigh as he handed her two dollars. "That should buy you a pack of gum."

"Hold it, you mean to tell me she gets off scott free while I'm out a baseball!" Lynn shouted in an angry tone.

Lincoln pushed his hand in her face, when she looked at it she noticed $3 in it. "There, that should get you another baseball, now can you two just forgive each other and move on before this scene gets any bigger?"

Both girls were touched by the gesture and apologized to each other before going their own ways. Lincoln turned around with a sigh and walked back towards his friend.

"Come on Clyde, let's get some food. I'm starved."

"But Lincoln…" Clyde said with an uncomfortable tone. "Didn't you tell me earlier that you only had $14 on you? With that $5 you just gave to your sisters, you only have $9!"

Lincoln's face went blank for a second. He pulled the money out of his pocket and counted it. Clyde was right, he only had nine dollars left. Not enough to get the comic book….if he ate lunch.

"Desperate times call for desperate measures Clyde, I'm skipping lunch!" Lincoln said with determination scrawled across his face.

"Are you sure that's a good idea man?" Clyde asked in a concerned tone.

"Nope, but a guy's gotta do what a guy's gotta do!"

For Lincoln Loud, the remaining for four hours of the day would proof to be an endurance round. At first, it seemed pretty easy. All he had to do was not think about eating. It was biology class directly after lunch anyway, so all the talk of cells distracted his stomach from feeling hungry.

History class was a little more difficult though. It had to be a lecture of the French Revolution.

"Qui'ils mangent de la brioche, a French phrase that is often times mistaken to translate to let them eat cake, is commonly misattributed to Queen Marie Antoinette as a sign of just how far out of touch she was to the conditions of her subjects. " His teach said while holding the textbook. "However, no sources exist that can definitively prove that she ever said this phrase, the earliest source we can get was written more than 50 years after the war. Did she really say it? Write a brief journal entry explaining why you think she would have with what we've discussed about her personality in this lecture."

" _Cake. It had to be cake! Man I could really go for some cake right now!"_ Lincoln thought as his stomach started to roar. Fantasies of moist, delicious cake covered with a beautiful layer of frosting and filled with a bright and gooey fruit glaze went through his mind. His mouth salivating at the concept of that thrilling first tingle one's tongue makes when it firsts touches such a sweet and creamy delicacy. If Clyde hadn't snapped his fingers to get his attention, he might have broken down right then and there.

"Thanks buddy, you really saved me there!" Lincoln said while catching his breath.

"Anytime" Clyde said with a smile and a thumbs up. "Just try to not chew on your notebook next time.."

Lincoln looked down and saw bite marks on the bottom of his notebook, the area all chewed and soggy. "Tha….must have been disturbing to look watch." he uttered, his face flushed in embarrassment.

Once class let out, Lincoln dashed for home as fast as he could. He had only two things on his mind, food, and comics. He had a plan, rush into the kitchen and eat something quick, then take his bike and get out of the house as fast as possible before something else came up.

It wasn't the best plan in the world, but it was all he could think of on such an empty stomach.

When he got home, he surveyed the area. "Perfect, no sisters." He slid into the kitchen and prepared himself a sandwich.

"Come to papa!" He said before ramming it into his mouth, coughing a little as he scarfed it down. Now that he was satisfied, all he had to do was go to the garage and gab his bike. He went out the back door and strolled along with his head held high. Everything was going better than he thought, even the birds sounded like music to him.

 _Wait a minute...that IS music_

He heard loud guitar playing from the garage as he approached it, not sure how he was ever so far up in the clouds to miss such a large amount of noise. Right before he opened the door, it suddenly stopped.

"ARGHH YOU'VE GOTTA BE KIDDING ME!" Shouted a raspy voice.

Lincoln poked his head in and saw his older sister Luna angrily looking at her guitar, a few strings ripped apart.

"Hey Luna...what's going on?" He asked nervously.

"It's totally awful bro! I was shredding along on my axe when my hand slipping and my bracelet broke some of my strings!" She said with a tone of disappointment. "Worst part is that I don't even have enough money right now to get more, and I've already gotten money from mom and dad this month."

"Oh, that's rough." he said, looking at her sad eyes.

"It's totally bogus, of all days to be short three bucks." Her head held down.

" _Wait, $3? I can do that and still have enough for my comic book!"_ Lincoln thought, a smile forming in his lips. He ran up to Luna, his hand in his pocket.

"Here, I can give you the three dollars, I'm sure you'll give it back to me whenever you have the chance." He said while handing her the money.

"Whoa, you're rad little bro! Thank you!" She said excitedly while taking the money and running off, presumably to the guitar store.

Lincoln stood for a moment and sighed to himself, a small smile on his face. He'd spent nearly all of his money on his sisters, but at least now everyone in the house could be happy, including him. He grabbed his bike and helmet and began to head out.

As he reached the driveway, he came across another commotion. His two oldest sisters, Lori and Leni, were having an argument on the front lawn.

"I literally can't believe you dropped my nail polish, again!" Lori said angrily.

"Well I like can't believe you stepped on my mascara and snapped it in half!" Leni said, just as annoyed.

" _Oh boy, this is gonna be a bad one."_ Lincoln thought as he watched the scene unfold. The last time they accidentally ruined each other's make up, they didn't talk for over a week and the whole house got divided. If he was lucky, he could slip out without them looking to him for a tie breaker. He slowly started heading for the street when Leni took notice of him.

"Lincy, get over here and tell Lori she was wrong for breaking my mascara!" She said, beckoning him to come over.

"Please, he's going to tell you that you shouldn't drop other people's nail polish."

 _Dang it, now I'm trapped! Well, I have three hours. This can't take THAT long._

Lincoln walked over and heard them go back and forward for what seemed like an eternity. After a while of it going nowhere, he looked down at his watch and noticed it was 7, four hours after he was initially called over.

"AHHHH, the comic store closed while I was listening to you two argue!" He shouted in utter despair.

"Oh, were you going somewhere?" Lori said, for the barely realizing that Lincoln had his bicycle helmet on.

"Not anymore" He said with a sigh. "Look, I don't know how much makeup costs, but I have $6, you two can do whatever you want with it, just please make up." He said as he walked passed them, handing them each three dollars in passing.

"O-M-Gosh, I feel so bad" Leni said with a sad expression on her face.

"Me too Leni, me too." Lori replied as the two watched their brother head up the stairs and into his room.

As Lincoln got into his room he heard his walkie talkie go off, Clyde's staticy voice coming through

"Did you read the comic yet Lincoln? It's the best issue ever!" Clyde said in excitement.

"No Clyde, the store closed, so i gave the last of my money to my sisters." Lincoln said with a sign. "Today is pretty much ruined."

Clyde felt bad, but knew exactly how to cheer his friend up. "Hey, don't worry about it, you can borrow my issue, and don't forget about ARGHHH tonight!" He said enthusiactically.

He was right, Lincoln still had his favorite television show to look forward to in just thirty minutes. His smile slowly returning to his face. "You know what, you're right. Why let a minor misstep ruin my day!"

"That's the spirit! Oops, there's my dads calling me, I gotta go!" Clyde said before leaving his walkie talkie.

Lincoln picked himself up and walked down stairs, confidence spilling from him. He had solved all of his sister's problems that day and he was determined to watch his show no matter what.

As walked out of his room, he noticed a power surge move through the house. This wasn't the most uncommon thing in their house, but it still always made his spine shiver.  
" _I never will get used to that"_ He thought as he started down the stairs.

But when he got down to the first floor, shock came to his face. The tv was on fire.

"Wha-what happened to the tv?!" He asked in a panic as he noticed his father run in with a fire extinguisher.

"I don't know son, I was watching it casually and then the power surge happened and it burst into flames! I guess we forgot to plug in the surge protector, huh?" he said with a worried chuckle. Tv's were expensive, even an old one like theres, it'd be a hassle to replace it.

Sadness filled Lincoln's face. Everything he wanted for the day was ruined. He didn't ask for much, but just this once he wanted things to go his way. He held his head down low as he walked back into his room and plopped face first on the bed. Nothing could make his heart break any worse.

He laid there depressed for a few minutes before he got up and opened his window doe some air. He didn't really need it, but it helped clear his mind from time to time. As he did this, he heard the sound of his door open.

"Lincoln." Said a female voice.

He turned around to see all of his sisters standing in his doorway.

"Hey guys, what's up?" he asked.

"Look, we know that today didn't go as you had hoped, and we just wanted to say that we all really appreciate it all you did today." Lori said while rubbing her neck.

"Yeah, you completely saved our backs." Lynn said.

"It's not Ace Savvy, but we drew you this comic to show our appreciation." Lola said as she handed him a few stapled pages of lined paper with drawing on them.

Lincoln looked down at it and smiled. The title said "The Loud Sisters and The Best Brother Ever." The gesture alone touched his heart warmly.

"Thanks guys, this really cheers me up."

Each of his sisters left him before leaving him alone again in his room. He may not have done any of the things he had planned to that day, but it was anything but the worst day ever. He turned off the lights and fell into a deep sleep, smile still on his face.

What are dreams anyway? Are they more chemicals in your mind? Are they hallucinations that happen because you don't breathe much in your sleep? No one knows for sure, but everyone has a theory. Either way, most people just forget their dreams as they wake up. But that night, something felt weird with Lincoln. His dream was weird. It felt even weirder.

There was a lot of pressure on his body. A hot feeling, one that didn't feel natural. His face seemed weirdly wet too, almost like he couldnt breathe well….wait, this wasn't a dream. He really couldn't break that well!

Lincoln's eyes shot open, his mouth gasping for air, but something was on his face, something soggy. Was it a towel? A mask? He wasn't sure. All he knew was that he could only take short and shallow breathes to avoid choking. His eyes were completely covered, making the dark room even harder to see, the only thing he could make out was a darkened figure bobbing up and down on top of him, pressing fiercely on his chest.

He tried to move his arms and legs, but he couldn't. They were tied down, his body pinned under the figure. He was trapped.

A million thoughts flew around in his head. What was going on, who was this figure. But after a chilling shudder from his spine, he realized what was going on. He body formed a cold sweat. He was being raped.

He didn't know who it was, but the hot, tight, slimy feeling of the other person's body sliding up and down on his manhood made him feel sick and violated. The tension causing him a similar pain to being hit in the crotch, only worse. He tried to scream out, but the thing on his face muted his voice down to a few gargles.

 _Why?! Why is this happening?! Who could be doing this to me?!  
_  
Terror filled Lincoln's mind. He had left his window open, someone could have snuck into his room to attack him while he sleeping defenselessly.

The person dug their nails into his shoulders as the pressed down harder and harder, each time making Lincoln feel more and more like vomiting. The only reason he didn't was because he was too afraid to.

 _This isn't right. This isn't supposed to be happening to him. He was only 11, he hadn't even considered having sex before. Why was his body complying with it? Why isn't his dick getting soft from the mere idea of this happening?!_

Suddenly a long feeling of shame arose in his mind. Was his body enjoying this? No, that can't be, this is the worst thing that has ever happened to him. Confused, violated, and ashamed, Lincoln started crying as it just kept going on and on for what seemed like forever. Just wishing the nightmare would come to an end.

Finally as the unknown attacker picked up speed for a long duration, his seed erupted out of him like a volcano. This was the first time he had ever ejaculated in his life, and it hurt. It hurt worse than anything he had ever experienced before. It was a tingling that didn't make sense. It felt like when you left a body massager on your leg for too long. The liquid made him feel sore, like it shouldn't have been coming out of him. And there was a sharp pain running down his leg. He felt so bad that he wondered if he would die from this pain.

He panted heavily, causing him to gag and choke on the soggy thing on his head, freshly dampened with his pools of tears.

He went light headed and slowly passed out just as he saw the figure get off of him.

 _Who...who? Who…._

Lincoln awoke the next morning with an empty soul. His arms and legs were untied, but he had marks showing his struggle, and claw marks on his shoulders. The thing on his face, whatever it was, was gone, and he was fully dressed. But he wasn't a fool. He knew what he experienced felt too painful for it to be all a dream. His eyes burned and he started to violently sob.

What could he do? Could he really muster up the courage to tell his family about this? No, how could he? They'd just laugh at him. You can't rape a man after all, they always have fun. The idea of anyone considering that fun made him sick to his stomach.

He looked over to his dresser, his eyes sore from all the tears he had shed. There was a note on it, one he hadn't seen before.

He read it and suddenly his heart sunk. His eyes widened more than they ever had in his life. Suddenly his throat grew sore and he rushed for the bathroom and began to vomit uncontrollably.

The note said:

"Last night was the best Lincoln, oh, and thank you for the money." written out entirely in newspaper lettering.

It made everything clear to him. His assailant was none other than one of his sisters. The thought hurt him more than the event itself.

One of his dear sisters, the people he loved with all his heart, whom he would do anything for, violently raped him for hours the night before.

This was surely the worst heartache he had ever felt in his life.

* * *

 **Well this was a rather interesting way to pass the time.**

 **It's been 6 years since I lost all interest in fanfiction and left the site, this account long left dormant. So why did I return? I was visiting some family over the holidays and fell ill, being couch ridden for roughly a month meant I was subjected to whatever my family chose to watch. My young siblings watch a lot of Nick, a channel I hadn't even looked at since 2012. It's fallen quite far from the being my least favorite channel as a kid, now I would consider it complete unwatchable, but this Loud House show was mildly entertaining compared to everything else.  
** **Maybe it was because I grew up in a massive family, maybe it was because it borrows a lot from newspaper comics I read as a kid, or maybe I just have gone soft and changed my mood towards television animation, either way I kind of dug it.**

 **Looking at the fandom online lead me to a lot of interesting things. I'm actually pretty amazed how many people like putting the characters of this relatively wholesome show into disturbing situations. Disturbing was always my specialty, so I figured I would come out of my eternal retirement and crack something out. I suppose my main concept was to take a story that felt like it could easily have been a part of the actual show, and then twist it at the end. Giving us what we have here. Author's note at the end, because why would I ever warn someone about a twist? That's just silly.**

 **I personally think the largest challenge with writing anything related to this show is how little the characters actually get the chance to develop individual personalities. We get the basic gimmick of their character, and usually they do a quick gag and leave. It's not like I don't understand, they wrote a show with a principal cast of 11 characters with several reoccurring characters in the mix, but there is still a lack of features for a lot of these characters. So I worked with what I could to try and keep them all as somewhat realistic to the show's universe.**

 **Will I write a second chapter? Probably not. But I'll leave it open just in case.**


	2. Chapter 2 - The Loud Unknown

Chapter Two - The Loud Unknown

* * *

It was 11 am on a Saturday morning, and the Loud family was alive as ever. There was not a single ro9om in the household that didn't have some sort of activity in it. All accept for a lonely linen closet at the end of the upstairs hallway. Inside was the makeshift bedroom of a boy who had faced so many horrors the night before, that he simply didn't have the willpower to do anything but lay there, eyes wide open and tired looking. Cold sweat all over his body.

" _I wonder how long I can stay in here before they notice me?"_ Lincoln thought as he stared at his ceiling.

After throwing up from the idea of whom his most likely rape suspects were, he had no energy to leave his bed. Rather than that, he was afraid to. How could he face any of his sisters when any of them could be guilty? Well, any of them besides Lily. She was only a baby after all.

What if they acted differently towards him? What if the they mocked him for not resisting?

Lincoln spent what seemed like countless hours going over every possible scenario. Could he tell his parents? No, he would have no way to prove who did it, and even if he did, what if that sister just turned it around on him? Who would take the side of the guy in a rape case? No one would. He would be branded as a sick pervert and kicked out of the house forever.

As he spent his time thinking, he could hear his sisters voices outside his door. All sorts of typical events were going on. He could almost visualize everything as he heard it happened.

 _*splat*_

"UGH! Why is there cream in my cleats?!"

"Glad you got to see what I _whipped up_ this morning. Hahahaha, Get it?"

"GROAN! NOW I NEED TO CHANGE MY SOCKS!"

That one was easy. Luan played a prank on Lynn involving whipped cream. Surprisingly, it sounded like one of the more tame pranks she's pulled in a while.

"Speaking of socks…"

 _*WHAM!*...*THUMP!*_

"LUAN!"

"What? You said you needed a few _socks!"_

"Sign...You guys are making it difficult to read."

"Really Lucy? A boxing glove pops out of the dresser and _that's_ what you're concerned with?"

Nevermind. Clearly…. whatever that was, involved multi-level planning. Lincoln let out a small chuckle as he pictured everything he was listening to. He rarely stayed in his bedroom this late into the day, so it was rare to hear the events of the Loud House without a visual representation. He wondered if this was what it was like to be their neighbors. Never seeing, but always hearing.

That lead him to another though.

" _Is my role in this family necessary?"_

Here he was, laying in bed, not acknowledging anything, but the house carried on like normal. Maybe their dependence on him was little more than superficial. Lincoln didn't usually have thoughts like this, but in his current emotionally drained state, he thought of everything. Or rather, he thought of anything that would keep his mind off of his pain.

He stared at the doorway as the sounds continued to flow through. It seemed completely different from before. The quiet confines of his bedroom felt familiar, they were normal. He may have suffered an attack here, but it didn't look the any different. It didn't sound any different. His room was the old world, the world where he could be the child he was just 24 hours ago.

The doorway was different. It represented a new world, a world of fear. A world where he could see his attacker at any second, and not be wise enough to know it. A world where people would notice his difference and mock him for it. A world where people could cause him more pain. But it could also be none of that. As more bickering and crashes and yelling took place, all he could think about was that Just on the other side of that door, was the loud unknown.

When Lincoln thought about things like that, he wanted nothing more than to just stay in his room behind a locked door forever. Maybe then it could keep him safe from whatever one of his sisters tied him up last night. But he knew he couldn't. Something would happen that would force him to leave his room. The only reason he was even in it right now was because it was a saturday.

He turned towards his clock. It was now 1:45 pm. He had been in bed thinking since early morning, afraid to face the world. In that time he had overheard several different happenings. Luna playing her guitar, Luna telling more jokes, Leni bumping into the wall, Lori's phone going off, Lola's jeep driving around the floor, Lana chasing the dog, things were going on as normal. And that hurt Lincoln more than anything. He was victimised by one of them, and they were out there acting like nothing had happened.

" _Maybe it wasn't one of them….maybe I jumped to conclusions…"_ He thought to himself. That was a comforting idea. He would love to go to his sisters for comfort in this situation, but then he glanced at the note on his dresser and he knew it was too good to be true. One of them did this to him.

"I have to know who. I have to know why." He said to himself as he stood up.

He walked towards the door with a rush of anxiety. He wasn't sure what he would find out there, and he may even retreat right back to his room, but he needed to see the outside world for himself. Even if it was just for a few seconds.

Lincoln took a deep breath, and opened his door.

Surprisingly, nobody was in the hallway. There was a lot of sound downstairs, which was probably where the majority of his sisters went. He slowly made his way down, each step filling him with more dread than the last before finally reaching the bottom.

" _You can do this, just act like nothing happened."_

He found his ten sisters all sitting about the living room watching tv. At first he was confused by the new television, but it was late in the day. His father probably got it an hour ago, which is why the sound upstairs died down.

When he entered the room, he was greeted with a few hellos.

"It's about time you woke up Linc." Lana said as she looked at him.

"I'll say, you were super quiet." Leni exclaimed with a smile.

"I was, just tired, you know?" He said while rubbing his neck.

"You feeling alright bro? You look like you've seen a ghost or something." Luna said as she gave him a worried look.

"Yeah, and I didn't sneak up on you this time." Uttered Lucy.

Before he had the chance to reply, Lori walked up and put her hand on his head.

"Hmm, your not hot, but you feel oddly clammy."

Lincoln pushed her away and backed up a little. "I'm totally fine!... just a small headache…...Don't you get those when you oversleep?" He said with a nervous smile. He knew that wasn't a good lie. His eyes scattered across the room, each sister was staring at him at this point, confused glances all around.

" _Come on Lincoln, find a way to change the subject! Get attention off of you!"_

Suddenly, something caught his glance. On the wall behind the couch was a framed painting he hadn't seen before.

"What's that?"He said as he walked towards it. It was a canvas with a wooden frame, and a quote written in white lettering. It looked like any other inspirational artwork you might find at an furniture store, but for whatever reason, it seemed odd.

"Oh that tacky thing? Mom bought it months ago!" Lola said with a scoff.

"Yeah man, how are you just _now_ noticing it? She went on forever about how it was from her favorite book and how it would serve as inspiration for all her daughters and all that mumbo jumbo" Lynn said, raising an eyebrow.

"I guess I never paid attention…" Lincoln muttered as he looked at it, absorbing the message.

" _ **Be patient, study your man, and remember that he lacks appreciation for the things he can buy, and the things that cost nothing. In Short, in his world of accurate calculations...you are a gift beyond price.**_

 _ **-Alexander King"**_

Those words hit Lincoln with a bitter feeling or torment. Why had he never noticed it before? As he looked at it, he thought of his actions the day before. What if his sister, whichever one it was, had planned her attack for a while now, and him giving away all his money made her realize that it was the perfect time to do it?

His head started to get light.

"Whoa, I need to sit down for a sec…" He said as he started to wobble. He started for the couch, but his sight grew heavy and he fell. All he could hear was the sound of his sisters shouting his name before he passed out.

It was well into the evening when Lincoln woke up. He looked down and noticed he was in his pajamas and laying in bed.

"Wha? How did I-"

"Whoa whoa, take it easy Linky." A soft voice said, interrupting him before he could finish.

Lincoln turned to see his sister Leni sitting on a chair by his bed, a fashion magazine on her lap. She had a look of concern in her eyes, but also small smile that showed she was relieved to see him awake.

"You gave us all a big scare there, we were panicking,like, forever." She said as he placed her hand on his forehead.

"Sorry, I guess I wasn't paying attention. How long was I out?" He asked, noticing a small soreness on his face, likely from when it hit the ground.

"About 9 hours, we've been taking turns sitting here in case you woke up."

"You guys have?" He asked in a puzzled tone. His sisters had always shown great concern for him, but they've never shown _that_ much concern. He must have really alarmed them.

"Of course we have! You're our precious brother!" Leni said assuringly. "You must be thirsty, I'll be right back with some water."

Lincoln laid back after she left the room. He may have been terrified of his sisters before he walked out that afternoon, but he felt relieved that they were still willing to treat him the same.

"Ugh, this pillow is too hot!" He said with a chuckle as he got up to turn his pillow over. Like most people, he was not a fan of how hot the top side of the pillow got as you rested on it. How did the underside stay cool anyway? It was still under your head? He would have to ask Lisa about it when he got the chance.

As he lifted his pillow, he noticed a folded piece of paper laying under it. His body froze. His mind racing as he picked it up and slowly unfolded it.

" _ **Don't scare me like that! Get better soon so we can have more fun later ;D  
I love you Lincoln!"**_

Lincoln broke into a cold sweat. This letter, like the last, was written entirely with cut out letters. It was obviously from the same person.

" _More fun later? Are they planning on doing that to me again?!"_

He began to feel sick as he recalled his feeling from the other night. He desperately didn't want to experience that a second time, but this letter almost confirmed that it will be happening again.

Before he could think, he heard the sound of the door opening. He shoved the note back under the pillow and laid back down. It was Leni with a glass of water.

"Here you go." She said happily. As Lincoln reached for it, she noticed the sweat.

"Oh dear, are you still feeling sick? This isn't good at all. Lay down and I'll go get Lori, she'll know what to do!"

Lincoln obliged and laid back down after drinking the water.

It was one of his sisters for sure, and if the 9 of them had all taken turns in his room while he was asleep, that meant he couldn't trust any of them.

"Just what I needed." He said to himself. "More anxiety."

* * *

 **I'll be honest, I wasn't originally going to write this chapter. I got it out of my system with the first chapter and was going to abandon ship. But then a small event happened.**

 **Without saying much, my day job requires me to go through hundreds of vintage books a day(not a library). Some hundreds of years old, some a few decades, almost all of them obscure. Every now and then I take a minute and read some of them. Yesterday I stumbled across an old dating book from the 60's called "Rich Man, Poor Man, Freud and Fruit: Advice to Amorous Ladies by Alexander King." It's essentially a how to guide for women trying to get men, it goes into long detail of each "personality type" for guys so a woman would know what approach to take. It's total garbage, and entirely outdated, but then that passage showed up. It fit the mood of this story so well that I took it as a sign that I should probably keep writing and see where it goes. This chapter didn't move things along much, but the next really should.**

 **On a side note, thanks for reading this. It's been so long since I have written anything outside of a college paper or a business email that I forget how enjoyable it can be...and how incoherent it can end up. as a quick mention, I have not read any fanfiction in a long time, and I haven't looked at any stories from this series, I've just read titles and descriptions. So if any of this seems similar, it is all a coincidence.**


	3. Chapter 3 - In My Fashion

Chapter three - In My Fashion

* * *

"I'm telling you, I feel fine!" Lincoln protested.

"If you could see what you look like right now, you would have a hard time believing that too." Lori responded. "Now hurry up and take this cold medicine."

She handed him a small plastic measuring cup, a purplish colored liquid inside. Like most boys his age, Lincoln hated the idea of taking medicine. The very idea of that rancid, slimy syrup entering his mouth made his stomach turn. He understood that medicine had to be awful in order to stop children from thinking it was a candy, but that never made the act of taking it any easier. He tried arguing against it some more, but it became quickly apparent that there was no way Lori would let him off the hook. He closed his eyes, threw his head back, and drank it as fast as he could.

"Bleh!" He shouted in disgust. "It's even worse than I remember!"

"Lincoln, you say that every time you make medicine." Lori scoffed.

"Yeah, and every time it's the truth."

"HAHAHA, I'M SO STEALING THAT ONE!" Luan shouted from down the hall.

"Luan, why are you even awake?" Lincoln asked.

"That's easy, it's Saturday write. HAHA, get it?"

Luan's pun was met with an audible groan coming from every door. Showing that pretty much everyone in the household was still awake. Lincoln looked at his clock. It was almost midnight, not that unusual for them to be up that late on a Saturday.

"Enough chit chat Lincoln, get some rest." Lori scolded.

"I was just out for nine hours, how do you expect me to get _more_ sleep tonight?"

"Oh that's easy, the medicine I gave you was the drowsy kind." Lori said was a smile. "We all know how weak you are when it comes to that."

She was right. If there was ever such a thing as being a medicinal lightweight, he was definitely a prime example of one. In a few minutes he would probably be out cold for the rest of the night.

"That's playing dirty!" He said.

"You have to get better somehow. Night little bro." Lori said and she walked out of the room and shut the door.

Lincoln laid back and let out a sigh. He hated taking medicine, especially because he wasn't sick. Slowly, a small grin came to his face. After everything he had been through in the past few hours, that whole exchange was oddly comforting. Maybe, things weren't going to be so bad after all. If things kept going normally, maybe he could forget about everything and go back to a normal life. He closed his eyes and fell asleep.

Unfortunately for Lincoln, that night would be anything but peaceful. He found himself in the worst nightmare he had ever experienced in his life. He was chained to a large pole. A large crowd was around him, made up entirely of people he knew. All of them shouting at him mockingly.

"WEAKLING!" Clyde shouted as he threw a drink at him, directly splashing in his face.

"COWARD" His father shouted.

All over, Lincoln was being assaulted with words that hurt almost as bad as rocks. Only almost though, because the crowd started throwing actual rocks at him. Blood started dripping from all over as he got pelted by stones of every size. Why? Why was this happening?

He looked up to see his friend Ronnie Anne in front of him. She had moved away some time ago, so it was odd seeing her in person.

"Getting raped by a girl? You're a bigger lame-o than I thought!" She said before throwing her fist directly into his face.

"AHH!" Lincoln shouted. He looked around and noticed he was on the ground. "I must have fallen out of bed…" He sad to himself as he stood up and sat back down on his bed. "Who am I kidding, I can't just forget this." He let out a sigh. There was no point in lying to himself any further. He had to come to grips with the reality of his situation.

He look at his window. It was early morning now, the sun was up and he could even hear the first few birds of the day. As he gazed out, he decided how to move forward. He may have ruined his first day of his new life as a victim, but he wouldn't ruin the second. Or any other for that matter.

"Whoever you are, I'll figure it out." With that, he stood up and got dressed.

Lincoln was alone in downstairs as he ate a bowl of cereal at the table. Thinking intently with each spoonful. He was devising a plan.

" _There's nine potential suspects, each with full access to me at any given moment." He chewed on._

" _All nine of them took turns in my room while I was passed out yesterday, any one of them could have left the second note."_

After a while, Lincoln came to a conclusion that made sense to him.

" _I'm clearly affected by this, maybe the culprit is too!"_

"Hey"

" _Perhaps they are affected even more than I am and I just don't know it yet."_

"Hellooo"

" _Maybe if I hang around them long enough-"  
_ "Lincoln"  
 _"They might slip up and I can figure out who it is!"  
_ "Earth to Lincoln"

" _That's it! Perfect plan. That's how I'll spend the day."_ Lincoln was getting pumped up. He had a plan now and he was going to stick to it. There was nothing that was going to prevent him from figuring out which one of his sisters did it. As for what he would do once he knew, he wasn't sure yet.

" _I'll definitely have to give her my mind on all the agony she's caused!"_ He thought. _"But what if it's eating her up inside to?"_ That was something he hadn't considered before. The mocking tone in the letters could have all been an act. Maybe it was a lapse in judgement and now she has nowhere to come clean to. If that was the case, what _could_ he do.

" _Maybe we could talk it out a-"_

 _ ***THUNK***_

Lincoln's train of thought was fastly interrupted by a smack to the back of his head.

"Whoa!" Lincoln shouted, nearly falling over in his chair. He turned to see his sister Luna standing behind him. "What was that for Luna?"

"To get your attention. I've been standing here calling you for like twelve minutes!" She replied.

Lincoln was taken aback by this. Was he _that_ unaware of his surroundings? This might be far more difficult than he anticipated.

"Really?"

"Yeah, are you sure you should be out of bed?" Luna asked, concern in her voice.

"I'm fine, I was just lost in thought."

"Oh yeah? Anything you wanna talk about?"

Sweat began to form on Lincoln's forehead. The two were alone, so it would be a pretty decent time to figure out if Luna was the culprit. But with the lack in evidence and the already slim 1/9 chance, he couldn't afford the potential blowback if he was wrong.

"No, it was nothing import. School stuff." He said while wiping his brow.

Luna smiled a little. "That's good, because I need to talk to you for a sec."

Lincoln froze. His mind began racing to a million conclusion. Could this be the revelation he was looking for? He gulped nervously.

"Alright, what's up?" He replied.

Lincoln's action made Luna laugh.

"Chill out bro, it's nothing big" She said. "I just got somethings came up that I gotta take care of today, but I already promised Leni I would be her stand in model for the day."

Lincoln felt like he knew where this was heading. "So you want me to cover for you?" He said, almost with a sigh.

"That's the idea!" She said with a wink.

Under normal circumstances, Lincoln likely would have said no. He only agreed to be Leni's model in dire situations. However, that would give him access to her all day, which would be a good opportunity to check if her behavior around him would be different.

"Alright Luna, I can take care of that." He said before turning back to his cereal.

"Right on, thanks bro! Love ya~" She said before leaving the room.

Lincoln heard the front door open and shut not long after that, so he figured she was already on her way out and he just happened to be the one awake to be asked the for the favor. With Luna gone all day, that meant he would have to move her on hold for the time being, but she seemed normal enough from that exchange.

 _"That was too brief to get a good read, maybe I should have pretended something was up so i could have gotten her to stay for a bit."_ He thought as he finished his bowl. " _Oh well, I should save my focus today for Leni."_

Lincoln considered Leni to be one of the easier sisters to read. She always wore her emotions on the outside and couldn't keep a secret even if her life depended on it. However, he still didn't want to her lightly. If Leni was the culprit, there was more to her than meets the eye.

When he got back to his room, he checked the clock. It was still too early for anyone to really wake up, so he would have to wait a bit.

"I know, I'll send her a text so she doesn't try to find Luna when she wakes up." He said while reaching for his phone. He went to write the text message, but this proved much more challenging than he expected. His body froze before he could hit send.

He had spoken to her just last night, but that was because she caught him off guard. He hadn't actually been the first to speak to any of his sisters since the event happened. Even his conversation with Luna earlier was initiated by her. He was just there. It was easier when he didn't have to engage them. It was one thing to be spoken to by your attacker, but a completely different thing to speak to them directly and act like nothing was wrong.

" _Come on Lincoln, you can do this…."_ He thought. Anxiety filled his mind and he began to tremble. It was just a simple text message. He had sent thousands of them in the past, many of them to Leni. This one wasn't any different. All it said was _**"Luna's busy and asked me to be your model today."**_ Surely he could manage to say that, right? Wrong. He started to feel ashamed of himself. Had he really become so afraid of his sisters that he couldn't even hit send on a text message?

"Do it." He said to himself. "Do it, do it, do it, do it, do it…" He kept repeating over and over. A vain attempt to give himself the courage to pull forward.

"Don't be a coward! You're better than this" He was shaking more and more with each passing second. Finally, after twenty minutes, he was able to take a huge breath and press down with his thumb.

Once he heard the send sound, he let out a huge sigh. That was officially the most difficult thing he had ever done, and it was something as mundane as a text message to his older sister. He felt humiliated with how much hesitation it took him. Even more so because he got a reply almost instantly.

"Huh, I didn't think Leni would even be awake this early…" He said as he opened the message.

It read: _ **"Glad yur felin better! cum Ovr n lIk 30 mins :)"**_

"Is this even English?" Lincoln said with a laugh. That was such a typical Leni text. She was just as fast as Lori, and it was always just barely legible to a regular human. As he got ready to go, he kept trying to remind himself that he had nothing to fear. It was just standing there while clothes where being sewn around him right? Nothing to worry about at all….If only he actually believed that.

When Lincoln got to the door, he hesitated for a bit before knocking. Lori opened the door and immediately put her hand on his forehead.

"Hm….you feel better, but your eyes are still kinda bloodshot." She said and she removed the hand.

"I told you last night, I feel fine." Lincoln replied.

"You just didn't want to take the medicine, you probably would have said anything to get out of that."

"That's just…" Lincoln paused for a moment. "That's actually a pretty fair assessment."

"I know it is, we've literally been in this situation before." Lori said, a hint of annoyance in her voice.

"I'm fine now though." He insisted.

Lori rolled her eyes. "Whatever Lincoln, I don't have time for this right now. I'm late for a tee-off." She said as she pushed passed him, golf bag hanging off her shoulder. "Leni, on Lincoln duty. Make sure he doesn't collapse again."

"Don't worry Lori. He won't leave my sight." Leni said as she walked to the door. "Now hurry up Linky, We have so many things to do."

Leni grabbed Lincoln's hand and pulled him into the room, shutting the door behind him. Lincoln's eyes wandered around the room. There were fabrics of all sorts littered across the floor. A tiny podium was in the center, and a large variety of needs and pins could be seen in a tackle box to the side.

" _Oh yeah…"_ He thought. _"This is gonna be rough."_

Leni directed Lincoln to stand on the podium as she went into the closet. "I was originally going to use Luna for her slim stature, but you should work out even better for the outfits I have planned!' She said with a large smile on her face.

"And just what kind of outfits are those?" Lincoln asked in a nervous voice.

"Well, I was originally going to try a lot of different batwing sleeve legging combos, but I think something a little more regal would be more fitting, something with a high neckline and lots of organzas!" She said merrily.

"What does that even mean?" Lincoln asked, feeling the same type of confusion he felt whenever Lisa started talking about a science topic.

"Oh, it basically means we're gonna work on some sheath silhouette styles" She replied, not realizing that all she had done was confuse the poor boy even further.

"Well, this is certainly gonna be an adventure." Lincoln said quietly to himself. Unaware that Leni had heard him.

"LINCOLN!" She shouted. "You're much too scrawny and not nearly rugged enough for an adventure style! You are getting way too ahead of yourself."

 _"Like I said, an adventure."_ He thought as he resolved to not talk to himself out loud when in Leni's earshot.

As time went by, Leni put Lincoln in all sorts of outfits. Some had hats, some hat sleeves, some were hemmed around his figure, some had a loose chest. Regardless of the style, nearly all of them were uncomfortable. Oddly enough though, Leni didn't talk for the majority of it. She just hummed to herself happily as she dressed him up like her own personal mannequin. Only speaking when she wanted him to pose in a specific way, or to tell him to hold still while she put a pin in. A piece of advice that proved to be futile as she pricked Lincoln more times than he could count.

After quite some time had passed, Leni had put Lincoln in an outfit that was weirder than the others. This one was white and had gold lace everywhere. Unlike the others, this one had pant instead of a dress or a had a long flowing jacket with lavender embroidery and something she called "Cowl Pockets" on each side, creating a wrinkle on the back. Under it was a satin shirt that had round golden pearl-looking buttons that went all the up to the high rise neck. Leni was adjusting the stitching as Lincoln examined the garment in the mirror.

" _Why is this thing so flashy?"_ He thought, looking at the very flamboyant sash around his chest. His body felt hot and weighed down in the outfit, the collar almost choking him.

"There!" Leni said as she stepped back. "They had said it couldn't be done, but I proved them all wrong!" She said excitedly, pulling out her phone and snapping a million pictures.

"What couldn't be done?" He exclaimed while shielding his eyes from the blinding flash.

"A super cute ballroom suit for women" Leni cheered. "Everyone knows pant suits are a total fashion disaster, so I invented a suit that has all the glamour and elegance of a ball dress with all the slimming functionality of a suit."

Lincoln let out a soft sigh. There was no mistaking it, Leni was acting completely normal. Maybe all of his worries about her actually _were_ for nothing.

"I think we've earned a break after this accomplishment." He said, grabbing a bottle of water from the ground. He looked at the clock, and was shocked to find that he had spent five hours with Leni.

"Ooh, that's not a bad idea Linky." Leni said as she grabbed a small chair from the corner so Lincoln could sit down. She had always been an overly courteous person. She may not have been the most intelligent person, but she had always been overly thoughtful. "How are you feeling? Need more medicine?"

"NO!" Lincoln gasped. "The last thing I need is more of that junk, I'm fine."

"That's a relief." Leni said with a smile. She reached out and touched Lincoln's had, which made him start to a little quiver. "I would feel so lost if something happened to you Linky."

Lincoln pulled his hand away. "Oh come on, you don't mean that. Besides, I'm not going anywhere." He said nervously.

" _Great, just great. I was just starting to feel comfortable around her again!"_ Lincoln thought, disappointed in himself. His sister was probably just being nice, and he was still seeing her as a potential attacker.

"I do mean it though." She said seriously. "You're my little Linky. I care about you more than anything." She said as she latched onto him with a big hug. "You scared me so much yesterday that I almost cried for hours." She began to tear up. "You're the only one I get to have fun with like this"

Lincoln's heart began to race, and a cold sweat started forming on the back of his neck. He was petrified with fear. He felt like he was in a horror movie and the monster had just caught him. He thought back to the letters.

" _ **Don't scare me like that! Get better soon so we can have more fun later ;D  
I love you Lincoln!"**_

 _"Could Leni actually be the one who did it?!"_ He thought. SHe said almost exactly what the letter said. And she used an emote in the text she sent him earlier, and there was one in the letter too! Lincoln began to get light headed. Here he was, spending the entire day with someone who just might be the most dangerous person in the entire house, and he had let his guard down. He gulped and pushed away.

"Linky….?" Leni said with concern. "Are you alright?"

Lincoln glanced in the mirror and saw that he was cowering in fear, looking like a lunatic.

"I-I'm good. I just need to get some fresh air." He said, trying to calm himself.

"Oh. Alright." Leni replied, not exactly convinced. She walked passed him and opened the bedroom window. "How's that?"

Lincoln took a deep breath. "Better….." He uttered. His mind was racing, hoping to find a way out of this situation. Just then, almost by divine intervention, his stomach grumbled.

"Oh, silly me!" Leni said with a laugh. "You're probably just hungry. We've been at this for a long time after all." She turned around and started for the door. "I'll go make you something to eat, you just relax."

Once Leni left, Lincoln let out a massive sign and fell down on the floor, his back against the wall. Panting heavily like he had just stained himself.

"That was close…" He said as he caught his breath. "But how much longer can I keep this up?" As lincoln considered that, he started dreading the thought of Leni coming back up the stairs. Could he even look her in the eye again? No, he had to escape somehow. He stood up and started pacing. There had to somewhere he could go to avoid her. Something….something….something…...something

"Lincoln"

"AHHHH" He shouted. Lucy was directly in front of him. How does she just appear like that?

"Yeah Lucy?" He said once he caught his breath.

"You're services are needed." She said.

Before Lincoln had a chance to ask what it was about, she grabbed his arm and started dragging him away. She lead him down the hall to Lana and Lola's room. She pushed the door open before he could even comment on the destination. The entire room was decorated weirdly. A large piece of cardboard on the ground, covering almost the entire floor. Lana was nowhere to be seen, but Lola was standing with her face to the wall, hands behind her back.

"You sure found him quickly…." Said while taking a glance at Lincoln. "But did you really have to put him in that outfit?" She asked confused by his attire.

"He was already wearing it." Lucy replied.

Lola gave a puzzled look. "Whatever, it's oddly fitting for the occasion."

"What occasion is this? Lincoln asked, finally speaking up.

Lola let out a grunt. "My next pageant has a drama section added to it. I need to use you as a stand in while I figure out how I'm go about it."

"Ok...but why is Lucy here?" He asked.

"No one in our family knows theatrics quite like Lucy. Even if her tastes are a little ghastly."

"I can't argue with that." Lucy said in her usual monotone style.

"So what do I need to do?" Lincoln asked, still confused about the whole thing.

Lucy handed him an mp3 player and a piece of paper. "You need to quickly learn the words to this song and dance along with Lola while singing it." Lucy said.

"Hold it, why do I have to do that? Isn't this _her_ pageant?"

"Yes, and nothing wins the heart of the audience more than the sweet and innocent princess being wooed by a mysterious prince's song during a dance." Lola said, her hands clasped together by her heart.

Lincoln agreed that they had a point, but he still wasn't a fan that he was being roped into it. "Still, I have like the worst voice here!" He argued. "You should have gotten someone else!"

"Relax Lincoln, we're just using you as a placeholder to save time. Now learn your lines!" Lola shouted.

"It's a short and easy one, you'll be fine." Lucy said in an attempt to be reassuring.

Lincoln put on the headphones and listened to the song while reading the lyrics. It's was around 5 minutes, which wasn't exactly short in his book, but it followed a fairly simple rhyme pattern. The lyrics confused him though. Lots of talk of a "dark new world" and "Darkness you cannot fight." Lucy must have definitely been the one to pick the song. After a few listens, Lincoln felt confident that he could at least kinda sing it well enough to get Lola through her practice.

"Ok, I think I got it." He said, unsure of himself.

"Good, now put this cape around you" Lucy said as she threw a black cape at him. "The outfit you have on is fitting, but it needs a little black for an added effect." She was going all out for this production, even if she was the only audience member.

Lincoln looked by Lucy's chair and noticed there was a camera propped up. "Hey! What is the camera for?" He urged.

"Lincoln, the camera is so we can show whomever I do it with for real what we plan on doing." Lola said blanky.

 _"Of course, that made so much sense.."_ he thought as he began to feel silly for being embarrassed about being filmed.

Lucy had Lincoln stand behind Lola. She had Lola fold her arms like she was being stubborn. Once they were in places, she said "action" and pressed the play button on a stereo next to her.

"Don't forget to get into character. You're trying to win her heart with this dance!" Lucy shouted over the music as the first part for Lincoln to sing came up.

Lincoln cleared his throat and began to sing, trying his best to imitate the voice he had heard in the recording. "Nighttime sharpens-" As he sang, he moved slowly towards Lola. A mixture of unsure and fear arose in his body, but the song helped him move along.

He approached her, delving entirely into the character of the mysterious prince and touched her shoulder gently, this made Lola jump a little, she hadn't expected such a direct movement from Lincoln.

"Slowly, gently, night unfurls its splendor. Grasp it, sense it, tremulous and tender. Hearing is believing, music is deceiving, hard as lightning soft as candlelight~" As he sang he spun her around and began to dance with her. Unaware that the trembling uncertainty in his voice added to the effect of the song. To him, he was just being nervous and singing out of key(which was still true).

The two moves slowly, but gracefully. Each one fully in sync with the music, and each other by proxy.

"Close your eyes for your eyes will only tell the truth and the truth isn't what you want to see."

Lola was staring into Lincoln's eyes the entire time, showing a look that he had never seen before. What was it? We wasn't sure.

"In the dark it is easy to pretend ~ That the truth is what it ought to be~"

The whole room was filled with a chilling aura. As the danced and Lincoln sang, all time just seemed to stop. No one, not even Lucy was able to fully comprehend what was going on. They just followed the scene through.

Lincoln spun Lola around and pulled her closer. "Floating, falling, sweet intoxication. Touch me, trust me, savor each sensation. Let the dream begin, let your darker side give in~" She dug her fingers into his arm as she continued to me. He then got fully caught up in the character and lifted her into the air and slowly spun around, her body cradled in his arms. "You alone can make my song take flight…..help me make the music of the night~"

"c….Cut." Lucy said as the hit off on the music player.

Lincoln let Lola down, who was still overwhelmed by the whole ordeal. Her face completely flustered. Lincoln was seemingly the only one not caught up in everything by this point.

"So, how was that?" He asked.

Lucy remained quiet for a bit before replying. "You were great, Lola, we need like 50% of that."

This broke Lola out of her trance. "WHAT DO YOU MEAN BY THAT!" She yelled.

"You were too mushy, it made me wanna gag." Lucy replied. Cold toned as ever.

"You just don't know talent when you see it!" Lola explained. "I was perfect in that scene with Linky."

"Perfectly gross maybe."

As they argued, Lincoln finally noticed a small pain in his arm where Lola had dug her nails in his arm. As he rubbed it, a memory flashed before his eyes. It felt exactly his his shoulders did the other night.

"No…." he said to himself quietly. This whole time he had let his whole guard down because he was so sure it was Leni. But the mark left by Lola felt exactly like the other mark. Could it really have been Lola? The light headed feeling returned and he started to step away from the two of them. As he walked, he noticed he had stepped on a piece of paper. He picked it up and looked over it, it was the lyrics to the song….but there was something odd about them….The letters were written entirely with cut outs.

"Why...why is this written like this?!" He said.

Lucy looked up at him, stopping her bickering with Lola. "Because it adds dramatic effect. I write all sorts of things like that." She replied.

This made Lincoln tremble. Lucy? Could it be here writing the notes?!

"You ok?" Lola said as she walked towards him, concerned by the noticeable distress he was in.

"Just….just…." Lincoln tried to say but couldn't.

"Linky…." She said as she got closers.

Lincoln closed his eyes. "JUST GIVE ME SOME SPACE!" He shouted as he ran to his room and slammed the door shut. He sat on the bed, curled into a ball. Just what was going on? Who was the sister that caused him so much pain? There was enough evidence to condemn three of them already. What if all of them had something on them. Would he ever know? Would he ever have peace?!

Curled up on his bed, Lincoln cried until he fell asleep. Completely ignoring the knocks and calls from his sisters for the rest of the day.

* * *

 **And there we go, a chapter 3 is finally done. This was probably the most difficult chapter so far. The beginning was largely untouched, but it was supposed to focus primarily on Luna. The Lola/Lucy event was supposed to take place during the day, and then the night was supposed to be a big story about Luna performing at a night club. The problem was that I got carried away and the Luna stuff became a little too sweet for this particular story. So I axed all of that and rewrote the chapter with a larger significance on Leni.  
** **If you wanted to read the Luna version of this chapter, I uploaded it as its own story called "Star of the Masquerade." I will find more to do with her in this story, but I figured it was best to move her elsewhere rather than attempt to completely rewrite it.(Perceptive readers might be able to mix the two together to see how it was originally intended because I completely deleted very little.)**

 **The song Lincoln is singing is of course Music of the Night from Phantom of the Opera. I love that show, and the sinister undertone of the song plays a lot into potentially incriminating Lucy for creating her perfect "dark prince" while also serving as an enchantingly romantic tune to show some of Lola's inner demons.**

 **Hopefully it won't take as long to write the next chapter, but I still need to tweak the outline a little now that it is thrown off.**


	4. Chapter 4 - When The Night Meets The Sun

Chapter 4 - When the Night Meets The Sun.

* * *

Mondays are always the most peculiar day. The mental exfoliation they posses is matched by nothing else. Did you have a great weekend? Monday is here to ruin it. Did you have a bad weekend? Monday is here to save you. Monday is the eternal wake up call for any situation you might find yourself in. No matter what happened over the week, Monday will make sure you restart your life as if nothing has happened. Good, or bad. Some have declared war on Mondays, other's claim to love them. It is the most divisive subject that does not involve religion or politics. Mondays are not good, they are not bad. They aren't magic, and they aren't a cure. Mondays aren't weird. They aren't normal. They are peculiar.

But what happens when your Monday begins in the middle of a Sunday evening? There is much debate about what the hours past midnight constitute as, at least in a philosophical sense. Logically, 12:00 A.M. is the first hour of the next day, but it is also the 0:00 hour in a 24 hour cycle. And despite it now being the next day, the sun is usually still down. Does the day truly count if there is no sun and most are still asleep? It was this very concept that Lincoln Loud considered as he opened his eyes at the stroke of twelve on Monday morning.

He was still in the weird outfit that Leni had made around him. He had locked himself in his room to avoid all interacting with his siblings and successfully ignored every knock and plead they made. At one point he was almost certain that Lynn was going to destroy, but it managed to be resilient enough to hold. It may have been a dead chunk of wood, but to Lincoln, that door was his only savior. His only sense of comfort in the world.

He was still trying to comprehend everything he experienced from the day. Leni acting weirdly affectionate in the room. The feeling of Lola's nails. And Lucy's odd use of cut out lettering. He had hoped his digging would get him closer to understanding who had used his body against his will, but instead he was even farther away than when he started. He just replayed the events of his weekend over and over as he was laying there, feeling nothing but depression and sadness.

"I just don't get it…" He let out. His tone soft and breathy.

"Don't get what?" A voice replied.

This made Lincoln jump.

"W-who?!" He uttered frantically.

"Relax Lincoln, it's just me." The voice said.

It was dark, but he was able to make out a figure sitting on the edge of his bed. It was Luan.

"How, how did you get in here?" He asked, still audible frightened.

"Please, I've been booby trapping this house for years. I can get into any room if I really wanted to." She said earnestly. "And it's a good think your name is Lincoln, because you sleep like a log. Haha, get it?"

Lincoln didn't even pretend to be amused by that joke. He found the mere concept of her breaking into his room nothing but disturbing.

"Since when?" He said, giving a glare.

"Since when have I been breaking in here, or since when have I been in here tonight?" Luna replied.

"BOTH."

"Whoa whoa, No need to get angry." She said nervously.

"There's plenty of need to be angry, now answer me!"

"Alright." Luan let out a sigh. "I've broken in here more times than I can count, almost on a weekly basis for different things I need to borrow here or there." Her eyes wandered around the room, probably to look at things she had grabbed while Lincoln slept. "As for tonight, I waited until everyone else turned in, and entered then. Which was about two hours ago."

"You've been in here for two hours!" Lincoln gasped. "Doing what?!" He was now in full defensive mode.

"...Nothing much." Luan said, obviously flustered by the question.

"LUAN!"

"Ok ok, I came in to electrify your alarm clock so you would get a shock when you woke up and I could pop in with a joke." She looked down at her knees. "But when I saw you curled up like that. I felt guilty and decided just to sit here."

"Guilty?" Lincoln said, his tone lightening up a bit.

What did she mean by that? Lincoln consider several things. If she was able to get into his room at any time like she claimed, then she could easily have been his attacker. The others still were questionable, but now she was the prime suspect.

"Yeah, guilty of all sorts of things." Luan said.

"Like what?"

"Well, for starters, I used your money to help buy that shock button I was planning to use on you." She said with a nervous laugh.

Lincoln gave her an unamused look. What she had used that money for wasn't even remotely what he was thinking of. Though the idea of him funding a prank that would have been played out on himself did sting a little.

"And, I don't know." Luan started to tear up. "You've just been so off all weekend, and you fainted the other day. And today you locked yourself in here." She turned her back to Lincoln. "I just can't help but shake the feeling that you're in pain and that it's somehow my fault."

"Luan?" Lincoln said. He was started to get more suspicious. If she really was the culprit, maybe she got guilty and decided to come clean. He would hate it to be her, just like he hated the idea of it being any of his sisters. Yet, the idea of the one responsible apologizing unprompted seemed nice. "If you did something, you better tell me!"

Minutes went by and nothing happened. Luan just sat there. Lincoln started to get annoyed and turned her around forcibly. If she was the one who raped him, he was going to find out there and then. But what greeted him was not something he expected. It was Luan crying profusely. Seeing her so sad broke his heart even further. He wasn't sure what he thought about her in that moment, she was his potential attacker, but he couldn't stand the thought of her in that much emotional distress. Lincoln pulled her into a hug.

"I'm worried about you…" She said as she buried her face into his shoulder.

Luan didn't speak after that. She just kept crying and Lincoln just kept holding her. There was nothing else he could do. As a human, he was still a wreck and wanted answers. But as her brother, he needed to be there for her above anything else.

 _"Just this once, I'll forget."_ He thought as he patted her head in a comforting way.

They remained like that for a few hours. Neither one talking. While Luan cried, Lincoln was locked in a mental conflict. If Luan really was the person who caused him so much agony, why was he comforting her? True, he didn't know for a fact that it was her, but he also didn't know for a fact that she wasn't. She did however, display the ability to reach him at any time while was most vulnerable. Shattering the one illusion of safety he had left. He should be fearful of her. He should feel sick around her. He should be angry. But he couldn't. For whatever reason, in that moment he couldn't bring himself to feel any of those emotions.

He was confused with how he was feeling. He shouldn't want to protect any of his sisters, but the entire day that was all he did. He was He helped Lola and Lucy because he was avoiding Leni whom he had helped with clothing only because he was helping Luna out. Why was helping them such a natural instinct for him? It seemed like his body forced him to solve any of their issues, even if that wasn't the correct thing to do. And now it was pushing him closer and closer to breaking down, and he still couldn't refuse. Just what was this.

"Luan…" He said, finally breaking that silence that seemed as if it would go on forever.

She looked up at him, tears still flowing. Not sure what he was going to tell her.

"I love you." He said. It was the only conclusion he could come to as to why he was still there. That was a painful truth in love. No matter who that person was or what they did, you couldn't stop loving them. And he loved his sisters dearly.

Luan took a few second to process Lincoln's words and then replied. "What about tomorrow? Will you still love me then?"

Lincoln bit his lip. He didn't even consider that. She wouldn't always be a mess in front of him like this. He could go back to being angry and afraid of her as soon as she walked out the door for all he knew. But, he couldn't let that idea bother him for too long.

"Of course. Tomorrow, the next day, and every day after." He said, positive that it was the truth. He was unsure of how he would act around her. Especially if she turned out to be his attacker. But in this moment, he was certain that he would love all of his sisters forever. Regardless of how badly they hurt him.

Luan hugged him tighter after that. They stayed like that for another hour before she got up and left. Not saying a single word.

Lincoln laid back and let out a small chuckle. If it was her, he certainly failed at finding out. Or confronting her about it. If it wasn't, he had no idea how to proceed further. He hadn't even spoken to Lynn, Lola, or Luna since it happened, and he wasn't around Lori or Luna to figure them out either. Maybe he really was too much of a "lame-o" to stand up for himself and demand answers. He couldn't even learn all that Luan was guilty about. So what now? He laughed to himself again.

"This means war."

"Tomorrow, I'll be ready for them, whether my mind believes it or not."

It was at that moment that Lincoln truly became determined. It may cost him his santy. He may lose his humanity. But he was going to figure it all out. One way or another. He turned over and fell back asleep. It was only 5:00 A.M. Plenty of time to rest before school.

Mondays are peculiar things. Whether they bring good times or bad times, they are always the birth of a new beginning. And all beginnings bear fruit of some kind. Even if it was unexpected.

* * *

 **Shortest chapter so far, but I couldn't think of a good way to close this arc and move things forward without some of the lines in here.**

 **The first half, hurt, is now finished. The second half, mystery, can now truly begin. But Lincoln is still just a boy with a lot of conflicting emotions. How will he handle everything? Who will break first, him or whichever sister it was that did this?**

 **On a side note, the first episode of the year finally came out. I didn't watch it live, but I caught it on my DV-R last night. I love that they just now decided to give Luna more characterization. I sense the tech-savvy part of her character opening her up to new things. Not sure if I will make use of it or not. And I think anyone with siblings has fought over the fridge. We were cutthroat in my family when it came to food, so I was laughing constantly through that scenario. Definitely up there as one of my favorites.**


	5. Chapter 5 - A Nameless Flower

Chapter 5 -A Nameless Flower

* * *

The scene at the breakfast table was almost like clockwork. Everyone was eating and engage in several conversations among each other. Lynn was talking about an away game her softball team had later in the afternoon, Luan was trying out her latest jokes, everyone was normal. Everyone except for Lincoln. He was anxious.

" _Just five more minutes and the bus comes…_ " He thought as he silently stirred his cereal. Occasionally bring the spoon to his mouth to pretend like he was eating.

In most situations he would be more hesitant to want to go to school after a weekend, but today that wasn't the case. He had been longing for the school bus to come by all morning. He hadn't gotten any sleep since Luan left his room, and he had noticeable bags under his eyes. His body was exhausted, more sleep would do him good. But that didn't matter. The school bus was all he cared about. It was his freedom. His escape from home, to a more rational setting.

After a while, he stood up and walked into the kitchen to put his bowl in the sink. As he looked at his reflection in the water, he could barely recognize himself. He had a harsh aura around him. His expression was sharper, and his eyes seemed more distressed, like those of a prisoner who hadn't seen the sun in years. Under normal circumstances, a sight like this might have frightened him. Instead, he was more fascinated than anything. It took only three days for his entire expression to change. He was going to see the outside world for the first time since it happened. He wondered if anyone would notice. He wondered if he would be able to put his thoughts behind him. Would he even be able to focus on his school work. It didn't matter. All he wanted to do was get away for a few hours, and school would provide him with that.

Looking at his watch, he noticed that the bus should arrive any moment. He grabbed his backpack and started to head out the door. He was about to touch the knob when Lori called out to him.

"Lincoln, do you need a mirror or something?"

He turned to see her annoyed expression.

"What do you mean?" He asked.

"You look like you just got ran over by a train." She replied. Indeed, he did look pretty rugged. His hair was much messier than usual and his clothes were wrinkled.

Lincoln shot her a snarky look.

"I'm going through a grunge phase. You wouldn't get it." He said and then walked out the door before Lori had the chance to reply.

As he walked down the block, he started examining that exchange. " _What was that all about?"_ He had never acted out like that before. It wasn't like him to give that much sass to anyone, let alone one of his sisters. Whatever, she deserved it for being annoying to him all weekend.

The sight of the yellow school bus was like an omen from heaven to Lincoln. That golden colored chariot was taking him away from the madhouse he called home. It was the first true feeling of safety for him. As he got on, he fell into his seat and let out a sigh of relief. His bright smile started returning to his face and his eyes started to regain their original light.

"It feels good to get away." He said as he watched the world outside the window as the bus moved.

The school halls felt like a wonderland. It was the same as it had always been, and that was what made it so magnificent. The outdated lockers, the tacky floor that always seemed like it needed to be waxed even after a waxing, the lights that occasionally flicked and always had that annoying buzz to them. He even found a wrinkled dollar on the ground as he walked, which he definitely took as a sign of good luck! Who could have ever thought that a public school could look so beautiful to a broken child. As Lincoln got to his classroom, the familiar face of his friend Clyde made him happy.

"Hey man, I got that comic for you." Clyde said as he held out the coveted Ace Savvy issue that Lincoln was unable to buy.

"Aw Right! Thanks Clyde, I've been dying to read this thing!" Lincoln said gleefully.

Clyde gave him a puzzled look. "You sure you don't mean that literally?"

"What do you mean?" Lincoln asked.

"Well, you look like a zombie right now." Clyde replied.

Lincoln felt slightly embarrassed. " _Well, that answers that question. People can notice."_ He quickly rustled his hand through his hair and patted his shirt to make it straighter. "It's a long story. You know how my house can be."

Clyde laughed a little. "Typical Loud morning?"

"More or less."

Lincoln felt a sense of relief. Being part of a family as hectic as his certainly had its perks. Being able to occasionally show up looking like he currently did in public and have no one dig into it was a definitely blessing in disguise. He still had a lot of demons from the events of the weekend, but he didn't want to think about any of them at school. It was his much needed getaway, his place of solace. He was going to use it as a much needed space to clear his mind.

Lincoln and Clyde continued to chat and flipped through the comic book before the bell rang, signaling the start of class.

"That was really something! I can't believe Cold Deck almost managed to activate his final table!" Lincoln said enthusiastically.

"Yeah, and who knows what Gap hand is planning? That set up at the end got me to read this issue seven times!"

"That's enough you two, class is starting."

"Yes Ma'am" They both said and they turned their attention to the front.

Lincoln opening his backpack and pulled out his notebook. Sticking out of it was a small piece of paper. _"That's weird, I don't remember sticking anything in here."_ He thought as he pulled it out and opened it. Immediately his heart sunk. His good mood ruined. It was another note like the ones he had received before.

" **If you keep acting weird, the other's will start to ask questions. I would rather keep this between us. I'm sure you would too. Love you XOXO"**

It was cryptic as always, and just as effective as the last two. But who could it have been from? Lucy seemed like the prime suspect, but the writing is too easy to replicate for him to be sure. He had left his backpack in the living room all weekend, so anyone could have slipped this in there. Whichever one of his sisters this is, they're great at hiding their tracks from him.

He noticed something else on the note. A small rose petal. It was deep red, almost like that of blood. It was slightly wrinkled, but still had a soft and smooth feeling to it. It was fresh. Was there any significance to it? As he looked at it, he remembered that roses were currently in season. They were all over town. Just what is she trying to say by this?

The thought continued to bother Lincoln all the way until Lunch. He was able to put his regular face back on to talk with Clyde as they sat down at the lunch table.

"So what did you do this weekend?" Clyde asked as he bit into a sandwich.

"This weekend? Um…." Lincoln began to silently panic. What was he gonna tell Clyde? He couldn't just come out with "I locked myself in my room because I was raped." That would be suicidal.

" _Calm down Lincoln. Just calm down."_ He said internally as he tried to come up with something to say. Lincoln had always been a terrible liar, and Clyde knew him better than just about anyone, so a bad lie would be easily discovered.

" _Wait, just truth! I can just repackage the truth!"_ Lincoln smiled at that idea and spoke up.

"Eh, the typical stuff. I modeled clothes for Leni and helped Lola rehearse for a pageant." He said with a shrug. _"Come on Clyde, buy it."_

Clyde silently chewed. The anticipation for his response made Lincoln feel sick with anxiety. Finally, after what seemed like an eternity, Clyde swallowed and spoke up. "That's cool. I just watched tv and went shopping with my Dads on Saturday."

Lincoln let out a soft sigh. Clyde didn't get suspicious, his secret was still safe.

"Not bad. I was gonna go out on Saturday, but after overhearing Luan's latest prank on Lynn, I just stayed in my room." Lincoln said with a laugh.

"Oh yeah? Wat was it this time?" Clyde asked.

"From what I could tell, it was a boxing glove in a sock drawer and something to do with cream. Frankly, I was too scared to ask Luan when I saw her the next time." He replied with a laugh. As he remembered it, it was probably a funny scene.

"Why was that?" Clyde asked, much to Lincoln's surprize.

He mentally scolded himself for talking without thinking. Why would he be afraid of Luan? That was such a stupid thing to say! Normally he could just say because he didn't want a prank pulled on himself, but April first had already passed, so there wasn't really cause for alarm on that front. Lincoln noticed Clyde looking at him with a puzzled expression.

 _"Uh oh, what does my face look like right now?!"_ Lincoln thought as he started to freak out. He reached out and grabbed his milk and started to drink it quickly, hoping something would come to him. He drank too fast and started to choke.

*ACK COUGH*

"You ok buddy?" Clyde asked as Lincoln regained composure.

"Yeah, I just hadn't had anything to drink in a while." He said softly.

"No, I mean at home. You looked terrified when I asked that."

Lincoln eyes sunk and he let out an awkward chuckle. "Did I? I guess I'm just hopelessly transparent."

" _I must look like a madman right now…"_ He thought as he leaned back and stared up at the lights on the ceiling. " _If I don't look like one, I definitely sound like one."_ As Lincoln sat there, he thought about how pathetic he was. He couldn't keep up a charade for more than a few hours, and even that was only because he was in class. He wanted to forget about all of his troubles while at school, but he kept getting reminded of them. Did it really matter anymore? Did anything about him matter anymore? He was nothing more than a hollow husk of his former self. A marionette whose strings were constantly being pulled by an unknown puppet master. A cruel puppet master that does nothing but hurt him. But the strings of his heart were too tightly wound for him to turn on them.

"Luan's cruel you know." Lincoln said with another chuckle. An odd smirk on his face.

"What do you mean?" Clyde said in confusion, not sure how to process what was happening before him.

"She intended to toy with me, but played the victim when she got caught." He replied. "Nothing is more cruel than a showing your true colors in front of your victim."

"And what colors are those?" Clyde asked, trying to follow.

"I don't know for sure." Lincoln replied.

"The colors?"

"No, the flower."

"Flower? I thought we were talking about Luan."

Lincoln snickered at what Clyde said. "I don't know for sure if Luan is the flower. The flower could be nameless for all I know. But whoever that flower is named, its color is red like blood, and it has thorns to cut into me. Yet like any flower, there's always beauty to it. And even the pain of the cuts it gives me can't keep me harsh. I always remain human when I gaze upon it"

"What on Earth are you talking about?" Clyde said with great concern.

Lincoln glanced over at Clyde. His quivering face looked horrified. The sight of his best friend looking at him like he was a maniac quickly brought him back to reality.

"Oh, sorry. I was thinking of a poem that Lucy read to me this morning. It's pretty deep right? I sweat that girl is the next Poe." Lincoln said, nervously rubbing the back of his head.

Clyde raised an eyebrow. "That poem didn't rhyme."

"Her poems never do at first, I usually give her the rhyming words. She's only eight afterall."

Clyde and Lincoln started to laugh together. Lincoln wasn't sure how he managed to convince his friend that nothing was wrong, but he glad he was. They continued to eat and talk normally as if nothing had happened for the remained of the lunch period.

After they got back to their desks, Lincoln fell back into his thoughts.

" _What came over me back there"_ He said to himself. For a moment, he had completely lost himself. He wasn't him, he wasn't anyone. Just what was happening to him? All Lincoln could do was hope that it wouldn't happen again as he returned to his notebook to copy down what his teacher was saying.

The ride home felt long, but nothing could make it feel long enough. Lincoln had a sense of dread about going home. He barely managed to stay normal throughout the day at school, the moments he was normal felt like some of the best he had felt in forever. He didn't want to lose the ability to feel like that again. But he knew he would once he set foot inside the doorway. And worse yet, he had no idea what awaited him at home. He never seemed to know what awaited him these days.

He hesitated getting off the bus, but the driver yelling at him caused him to jump off it. He slowly approached his front yard.

"Stay strong." He said to himself as he opened the front door and stepped in. He was immediately greeted by the sound of Lori's voice.

"Oh good, you're just in time." She said as she walked in the room.

"In time for what?" Lincoln asked.

"I got carried away at my last golf game and my cuticles got ruined. So I need a manicure."

"And what does that have to do with me?"

"Simple, I need someone to come along and you're so rugged right now that you're literally begging for some spa time."

A cold sweat started down Lincoln's neck. He'd never been to a spa, but it definitely didn't sound like a good time to him.

"Why don't you get someone else, I'm sure Leni would love to go with you." He said nervously.

"Can't. She failed a test so Mom is having Lisa tutor her right now."

"Luna?"

"She doesn't do her nails, that interferes with her guitar playing."

"Luan?"

"At a birthday party."

"Lynn?"

"You're joking, right?" Lori said with a scough. "And don't even try to say Lola, she's at a rehearsal."

"Oh so that means…"

"Yep, it means you're the only one available. Let's go." Lori said as she dragged Lincoln out of the house and to the family van.

"No, really I'm fine. My nails don't need to be done. Honestly!" Lincoln said in a struggle. Then he got an idea. "I can't go, Clyde and I have plans today! Yeah, that's it!"

"Oh really?" Lori said, unconvinced. Lori reached into her bag and pulled out Lincoln's walkie talkie.

"Where did you get that?!" He exclaimed

"You left it on the couch again." Lori pressed the talk button. "Clyde dear, it's Lori."

A muffled voice came out of the walkie talkie. "L-L-L-LORI?!" Uttered Clyde's voice.

"You don't mind if I take Lincoln with me do you? Silence counts as a yes."

Clyde couldn't reply, instead a bunch of random vocal noises came out.

Satisfied, Lori tossed the Walkie Talkie. "He said he's fine with it." She said with a devilish smirk and started to drive off.

The nail spa was a relatively small building at the shopping mall. There were several chairs lined up in two rows, a tv on the wall showing a soap opera, and the whole place had a smell of incense and lemon.

"What's that smell?" Lincoln said in disgust.

"That's cleanliness Lincoln. Cleanliness." Lori replied as they walked up to the counter. "Two man-ipedis please." She said with kind voice. She took a glance at Lincoln's hands, and then turned back to the lady at the counter. "Make sure he gets your best stylist." She said with a whisper.

The two were lead to chairs at the back of the salon. As they sat, the massage chairs were turned on. It hurt like crazy at first, but after a minute, Lincoln started to relax. Two stylings came up to them and began to work.

First, they asked Lincoln to remove his shoes. Then placed them in a tub of warm water, which felt soothing, then they started treating his cuticles.

"Woah, it feels like they're gonna rip my skin off!" He said as the pushing against them.

"Just relax and let them work Lincoln. Trust me." Lori replied before turning her attention back to the soap opera.

After a strong mental battle, Lincoln decided that he definitely had no way out of this situation. He let out a sigh and closed his eyes. As soon as he did, he felt something get placed on his eyes.

"Hey, what are they putting on my eyes?!"

"They're cucumber slices Lincoln. It helps remove dark spots." Lori insisted.

Dark spots? Oh right, his eyes were covered in bags right now. This probably made perfect sense to everyone around him. " _Alright Lincoln, let's do this."_ He thought as he stopped resisting and let the stylist get to work. As the stylist continues to work on his hands, he noticed the the pain had disappeared. Once this happened, he actually started to enjoy the treatment quite a bit. The way they massaged his hands, the slight tingling of his fingers after the cuticles were treated, the soothing water around his feet. It all created an intoxicating experience.

"You know, this actually feels kinda nice. I could get used to this." He said with a warm tone.

"Told ya." Lori said smugly.

After a while, the stylists left to get the supplies to do their feet, leaving Lincoln and Lori alone to talk.

"So tell me Lincoln, what was all that about this morning." She asked.

"What do you mean?" He replied.

"What do I mean?" Lori said in a mocking tone.. "You didn't eat anything at breakfast, you walked out of the house looking like Oliver Twist, and you lashed out at me this morning. Literally none of that is your regular behavior."

Lincoln wanted to argue his case, but he knew he couldn't. Everything she had observed was correct. "You noticed all of that?" He said in a somber tone.

"Of course I noticed it, you're a terrible actor." Lori said with a smirk.

"To my credit, I think I did a decent job with the fake eating!" Lincoln chimed.

"Ok, I'll give you that...still didn't convince me though."

"I'll have to try harder next time." Lincoln said, causing the both of them to laugh.

"See? That's the Lincoln Loud I know." Lori said as she caught her breath. "Alway polite and trying to have fun, with some trademark Loud mischief thrown in for good measure." She shot a playful wink at him as she finished.

It could have been Her kind demeanor. It could have been the scent of the salon that he was slowly growing fond of. Or the soothing sensation of the fizzing stuff in the tub his feet were soaking in. But for whatever reason, Lincoln felt like he could open up, even if it was ever so slightly.

"I'm sorry Lori, I really shouldn't have talked to you like that this morning. I've just been going through a lot these past few days." He said while looking at his newly shaped nails to avoid making eye contact.

"Like what?"

"I couldn't tell you if I wanted." He replied.

"Lincoln!" Lori said sternly.

Lincoln looked up at his sister and saw a set of two devoted, caring eyes. Their look was completely alien to him. They had a sorry tone to them, and showed great concern as well. They were the most emotional eyes he had ever seen.

"You can talk to me about literally anything. I'm looking out for you." She said strongly.

"You are?" He asked, puzzled by the concept. His sister had always been more bossy and controlling than caring. She had her moments, but she always kept up a strict appearance to keep order in the household.

"Definitely." She assured him. "More than you could ever realize."

That touched Lincoln's heart. Someone was looking out for him. In this new world he had entered, one where those he trusted most were his greatest threat, just hearing those words made him happier than he ever thought possible. He took a deep breath and began to talk.

"Something happen. I'm not saying what but…..something happen." He started twiddling his thumbs as he spoke. "I don't know who, and I don't know why. All I know is that I don't feel safe anywhere anymore." He started to sniffle as he talked. Just letting his heart speak rather than his mind.

"I feel like I'm constantly being watched. Being preyed upon, and someone I love is the one targeting me. So I don't know if I can be strong enough to do something about it even if I figure out who it is."

"Lincoln…." Lori said softly.

He continued.

"I just constantly feel weak. I'm helplessly hopeless and hopelessly helpless. I've lost all control of my life, my future, my sanity. I don't even know if I'm strong enough to continue to be Lincoln Loud. I just keep falling farther and farther away because….." He started to hesitate. What was it that was really keeping him back? "Because I'm afraid." He let out a sigh. "I'm of afraid of home, I'm afraid of the future. I'm afraid of me, and…" he turned to face his sister, who's eyes never left him. "I'm afraid of you."

Lori wasn't sure how to respond. Here was her precious brother. Someone she loved more than anything, telling her that he was afraid of her. The very idea was enough to stab her heart, and hearing the words actually leave his lips caused it to shatter. She swallowed her painful emotions though, because right now it was Lincoln who needed to be consoled, not her.

"You're not weak. Your strength just lies in different areas." She said in a very sad voice. "You're someone who can achieve great things through your own will and free thinking. I've seen it happen many times before." Lori reached her hand towards him, but seeing his shudder at it caused her to set it down. "I hate that I can't help you through this. I hate it more than literally anything! But if it's really a problem with me. Then I'll do what I can to make you less afraid. You need at least one person you can trust."

"Thanks. Hopefully I'll figure things out soon. I don't think I can ever be normal again though."

Lori couldn't stand the thought of losing the normal Lincoln forever. But knowing there was nothing she could do was killing her too much to try anything.

They sat there quietly before another voice directed their attention elsewhere.

"Would you two young ones like a rose? Only one dollar." Said a merchant walking up to them, a bouquet of red roses in her arm. She directed the roses towards Lincoln as a hint that he should buy one for her. This was probably a sleazy tactic that she did towards any couple. How could the guy directly refuse a rose in front of a girl if he wanted to stay in the relationship? That wasn't the case with Lincoln and Lori, but he still felt somewhat obligated to get one. If anything it would get the merchant to leave. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the dollar he had found earlier and handed it to the merchant. She gave him the rose and walked off to other customers of the spa. She would likely be doing that in every business all day.

Lincoln starred at the rose for a while. The brilliant red color brought back memories of the petal he found in his note from earlier. It's thorns may have been clipped, but to him, it was just as dangerous. Shakespeare once wrote that "A rose by any other name would smell as sweet." He remembered that well from English class. Juliet said it because she was deeply in love with Romeo, but didn't understand why he had to be Romeo. He could have been anyone and still been as great as he was, so why did he _have_ to be the sworn enemy of her family? In a way, it worked well for his current situation. His attacker could be horrible if they were anyone, so why did it _have_ to be one of his sisters? Why couldn't it be anyone else? At least then he could have some solace. He turned to Lori and handed it to her.

"Here, this is for you."

Lori was puzzled at the gift, but accepted it anyway. "Thanks?" As she grabbed it, their hands touched. Lori was hesitant at first, worried that Lincoln would shudder away like he when she tried to touch his shoulder. But he didn't. Instead he held the contact.

"I may still be afraid of you. And I don't trust you. But like that rose, your thorns have been clipped. At least for now." He pulled his hand away and gave her a smile. "If anything, consider it a thanks for bringing me here. I needed to relax like this."

Lori smiled back. "Glad I could help." She sunk back into her seat and smelled the rose. "It's ironic that you gave me this though."

"Oh? Why is that?"

"Because on Friday Bobby surprised me by mailing me a box of dozens of roses. My room is literally covered in them."

Lincoln froze. Lori had roses the entire time. She could have easily given him that petal, she had more than enough to make it not look suspicious. His fear quickly started creeping back to him.

"I guess your thorns grew back…" He said quietly.

"What was that?" Lori replied. "I didn't catch it."

"Oh, nothing." Lincoln said blankly. "Nothing at all."

All Lincoln could think about now, was that Lori was definitely a suspect. Maybe tied with Lucy and Luan in terms of suspicion. Only worse, because he felt safe enough to confide in her.

 _"I'm even weaker than I realized..."_ He thought for the remained of the day.

* * *

 **There was a bit of a larger gap between chapters this time because I got insanely busy. I had to attend my youngest sister's birthday celebration, I went on vacation, my all time favorite video game got a remake that came out this week(play it! It's a perfect recreation that keeps all the wonder of the original with prettier graphics and a nicer frame rate). And overall I just had a lot to do at work.**

 **With the most recent two episodes being great, I decided to move Lori's plot development closer and push back another sister who was supposed to be in this position. Minimal changes are necessary for that though. The Selfie episode really struck a chord with me. Anyone who knows me personally knows that I am crazy about my selfies. I do some elaborate set ups for them. And if you ever see a picture of me, just assume there are around twenty versions of it with different faces and poses that the public will never get to see. So I felt a strong desire to put Lori in.**

 **Not sure how soon I can get the next chapter out, I obviously need to start writing it. But I'm also contemplating starting a side thing. I'm debating whether it should be a more light hearted affair, or one that doesn't directly use Lincoln as the central character. This story would still take prominance, but it would give me a much needed refresher so the quality doesn't slip.**

 **As always, thank you for reading and thank you for all who review these chapters. The fact that any of you care to read this has been who doesn't interact or partake in this fandom's work at all is very touching and I appreciate all of you. I don't talk about what used to be on my profile very often. I deleted all of it years ago and I mostly consider it to be shameful. But compared to what I wrote back then, this story is already more popular than anything I put out in 2010-2012. So that makes it feel more special.  
**


	6. Chapter 6 - A Devil Named Lincoln

Chapter 6 - A Devil Named Lincoln

* * *

As soon as they got back to the house, Lincoln rushed away from Lori as fast as he could. He wanted to avoid her has much as possible. Rather than go to his room, and risk running into one of his other sisters, he made for the backyard and hid behind the garage. It wasn't the greatest hiding spot in the world, but he knew for sure they wouldn't come looking for him there. At least not for a while.

He wanted to cry as he curled up against the wall, but he kept it in. Lori treated him like he was sick the day after. She acted like nothing had happened at all. She even acted like she had no idea what was wrong today at the salon. He didn't understand. Why were none of his sisters showing that they had knowledge of what was going on with him?

"There's only two answers." He said to himself. "The ones I've talked to didn't do it…" He smiled slightly at that, but the moment quickly soured. "Or, they are manipulating me so much that I just can't tell."

He hit the ground with his fist. The force caused an indent in the dirt. He didn't even acknowledge the pain in his hand, he didn't care about it. He thought he was the one being clever. He was so sure that the sister would slip up when he came around her, but only the opposite seemed to be true. He could never seem to keep his cool for long. The only time he managed that was with Luan, but if he wasn't angry at that time, it probably would not have been the case.

The only consistency in his life was the constant thoughts of his sisters. He couldn't escape them no matter what. They could break into his room at any moment, they could forcefully drag him away, and when he did get to be alone, there would be a note waiting for him, ensuring that he couldn't forget about them for even a moment. He had to find a way out, but how? HOW?

He kept asking himself that question over and over not paying any attention to the world around him. That was, until he heard the sound of singing coming from the garage behind him.

" **Who controls your mind~"** It sang. It was followed by loud guitar playing. It was very obviously Luna.

Lincoln laid on the grass and looked up at the clouds while he listened to her play. It was a harsher rock song, but nothing soothed him at the moment anyway. So what did it matter? At least she was a more than competent musician.

" **There have been changes, no more giving it all for free there will be changes, now woman is all you need~"**

Those lyrics confused Lincoln. _"Just what on earth is she going on about?"_ He thought for a moment, but only a moment. He didn't really care. She always played weird songs, and he wasn't listening to her play for pleasure anyway. He was there first, she crashed his pity party, and he was being too pathetic to leave.

"Pathetic, that really is become a synonym for Lincoln these days." He said to himself.

" **Who's in charge of hearts? Who controls your time? We're in charge of you~"**

Who _was_ the person controlling him? He couldn't honestly say he was in charge of his body anymore, his sister raping him took that privilege away from him. His heart was definitely not his anymore. He lacked all form of emotional control, and all of his time had been stolen by fear and anxiety. Was this really living at this point? He was nothing more than a mess. So who? Who was in control here?

" **We're big sister, hear big sister. There's big sister. Dancing on your grave~"**

That really got Lincoln's mind going.

"Of course, it's them! They're the ones in full control here." He said as he stood up. "All I have to do is figure out how to take control back from them! Then they will lose their grip on me."

A grin formed on Lincoln's face. He wasn't sure what he would do, or even if it would work, but having a plan was better than sulking forever. All he had to do was be the aggressor. He had to make them think he wanted them too, then they might give in and reveal themselves! He didn't like manipulating people like that, but he had to fight fire with fire if he was ever going to survive.

"Let's start with Luna since I already know where to find her." Lincoln said as he fished around for his walkie talkie. "Clyde, I need to borrow some money for something important. I'll pay you back as soon as possible." He then ran off to gather some "supplies" he would need.

Lincoln returned to the garage with a small basket in his hands. As he walked into the garage, he set it on the ground. He wouldn't need it yet.

Luna was too caught up in playing to notice him at first. He just quietly watched as she banged her head. Her fingers moved quickly and slid up and down her fretboard.

" **In my eyes, blood drops look like roses on white lace. They won't wash away~"** She sang, still in her own world.

That line struck a chord with him. She's mentioning roses too? What if the petal belonged to her and not Lori? Roses definitely started to look like blood drops to him, so if it was the reverse for Luna, then his pain not be as bad of a sight for her. Which would give her more reason to hurt him so badly.

This gave him an idea. He reached into his pocket and pulled out the rose petal from the earlier note. He put it in his hair. _"There Luna, now you have your rose on white lace"_ He thought as he walked closer to her. If it really was hers, this would be a dead giveaway that he was on to her. Once Luna finished her last guitar lick, she stopped to take a drink of water. Turning around, she finally noticed Lincoln.

"Oh, hey there bro, I didn't see you there." She said with a smile. "Come to watch me practice?"

"More or less." Lincoln said with a shrug. If he was going to push her into a possible confession, he needed to be more forward than he had been with anyone in his life. He couldn't let his fear or his conscience control his judgement.

He needed to stop being Lincoln Loud and start being a more devilish person. He was going to win. He was going to stop being pathetic and use a fake strength to make whomever was torturing him cave. _"It's you or them Lincoln, remember that!"_ He could be a devil in disguise, at least temporarily. She was the daughter of a devil anyway, so what did it matter?

"Cool deal, I'm just playing random jams right now." Luna said, hitting a few chords in the process. "Anything you feel like hearing?"

"Actually," Lincoln started rubbing the back of his head. "I was wondering if you could teach me a little."

Luna's eyes started to shine with excitement. "You mean it? Since when have you been interested in guitar?"

"Well everytime I watch you do it, you look so free, so fulfilled. I just wanted to see if I could share the feeling with you." He replied.

"Rock on little bro, come over here and I'll show you some stuff." Luna took the guitar off and handed it over to Lincoln. He put the strap on and walked closer to Luna, roughly shoulder width apart. "Ok, so there are three basic chords you should learn first. Once you get those down, you can start to play melodies. If you can keep at it, you can train yourself to play anything."

Lincoln tried moving his fingers and pressing down where She was directing him, sometimes making it sound decent, other times not so much. But it became quickly apparent that Luna was enjoy this. _"Good, now to push a little more."_

"Hey Luna, I'm still having some trouble with how to move my arms, can you help me out?" He asked.

"Sure thing." Luna said as she walked behind him and reached over his shoulders and put her hands around his wrists. "So you move the strumming hand like this. Nice and fluid, don't get too aggressive."

Being in this close of contact with her made him want to shiver again, but he knew he had to stay focused. Fear wouldn't control him. Not this time.

"And then you slide your fretting hand like this." As Luna Helped Lincoln move his arms, he started to play better. The sound went from barely music to amateur guitarist almost instantly.

"Hey, I'm doing it! Like this I think we can actually play a song together!" He said with an enthusiastic voice.

"Haha, wanna give try?" Luna said, giddy at the idea.

"Definitely! Let's play a simple one though."

"Alright, what do you have in mind?"

"Hm….how about that one 70's song dad keeps playing in the car. The really repetitive one."

"You wanna play that silly song? Well, I guess it should be easy enough."

The song choice was no accident however. Lincoln intentionally wanted something they both knew well.

"Ok, so I think you have the chord position down. Let's give it a try. One two three." Luna counted.

The two began to play. Lincoln using his fingers, and Luna controlling his arms. To some people, the scene could come off as a puppet performance, with Luna being the master. Normally, this would have definitely been the case. But not this time. Instead they melted into the one rhythm. Perfectly in sync as they shared the guitar. After a minute of playing instrumentally, Lincoln gathered the courage to start singing the lyrics. He wasn't a good singer by any margin, that event with Lola and Lucy proved that, but the point wasn't to sound good.

" **Doctor my eyes have seen the years, and the slow parade of fears. Without crying now I want to understand~"** He took his eyes away from the guitar and started looking towards the wall. **"I have done all that I could to see the evil and the good, without hiding, you must help me if you can~"**

As he got to the chorus, he heard Luna's much more melodic voice join in.

" _ **Doctor my eyes~ Tell me what is wrong," Lincolned turned his head and matched his eyes with Lunas peeking over his shoulder. They both continued, in sync with one another.. "Was I unwise to leave them open for so long~"**_

They kept perfect eye-contact as they sang together.

"Cause I have wandered through world and ass each moment has unfurled, I've been waiting to awaken from these dreams."

" _ **People go just there they will, I never notice them until I got this feeling that it's later than it seems~"**_

" _ **Doctor my eyes~ Tell me what you see. I hear their cries, just saying it's too late for me~"**_

Lincoln broke the eye contact to bring his attention back to the guitar. He knew the solo part would be especially tricky. To his surprise though, Luna pulled him closer and guided his arms with more strength. It was still choppy sounding, but for a beginner, it was a passable attempt. When it finished up, the two met each other's eyes again, now closer than before.

" _ **Doctor my eyes~ When can I see the sky? Is this the price, for having learned how not to cry"**_

At the end of the song, their faces were close enough to feel each other's breath, still wrapped in this guitar playing embrace. They stood there in that position for what seemed like an eternity. Eventually, Luna got a puzzled look.

'What's that in your hair?" She asked. She put her hand in his hair and pulled out the red rose petal. She held it up to her eyes and examined it before laughing. "Red looks surprisingly nice in your hair."

Lincoln chuckled. "Well roses and white lace seem to get along well together."

Luna stopped and looked back at him. "That's what I was singing, but this is an odd coincidence. You sure, you didn't put this in there yourself?" She asked.

"Nope that was there by accident. It's not a complete coincidence, it's a bummer though." He replied.

"Oh? Why's that?"

"Because it spoiled a gift I had for you."

"What gift is that?"

"I'll show you." Lincoln said as he handed the guitar back to Luna. He walked over to the basket he had left by the door and put his hand inside it. He pulled something out and hid it behind his back. "I was thinking of was to show my appreciation for you, and I couldn't think of much. But then I saw this and I thought it would be perfect." He put his hand out towards her and revealed a white rose. "Here."

Luna took it and looked at it with a confused expression. "Why are you giving me this?"

"White roses symbolize unity and purity. I cherish you, and nothing could ever show that better than this rose." He said with a smile. "And because it's white like my hair, you can be instantly reminded of me when you look at it."

Luna was at a loss for words. She just looked at the flower, slightly caught in the intoxicating scent it emitted.

"I have to get going now, I'm meeting Clyde down at the arcade. But lets play a song together soon." Lincoln said with a smile before taking the basket and leaving the garage. He quickly went around the corner and hid behind the building. Just as he had anticipated, Luna ran out to to try and catch up with him a few minutes later.

" _Perfect, she should be out of the way for a while."_ He decided that leaving a gap between interactions like this would help keep the ideas festering in their minds they way they had festered in his. Then he could confront them all and get the one who did it to feel so guilty they would confess to the crime. It was a the best scheme he had ever come up with.

As he looked around the backyard, he noticed Lana looking in one of the bushes.

"Perfect, I didn't even have to look for another one.' He said to himself as he approached her. "Hi Lana, what are you up to?" He asked.

"Frog hunting. One just isn't enough." She said, not even turning away.

"You're not gonna find any frogs around here, why don't we go to the creek together and look for one there?"

Lana jumped up excitedly. "Woah, you'll help me hunt?"

"Of course,what big brothers for?"

"You're awesome Lincoln."

The two started down the street towards the local creek. Lincoln hated to think badly of his younger sisters, especailly Lana and Lola, but he couldn't take any chances. Lana was just as much of a suspect as everyone else.

The creek wasn't that far from their house, so the walking wasn't long. Still, Lana wasn't allowed to leave on her own. And convincing one of her older sisters to escort her there was always a challenge. So Lincoln's offer was very appreciated.

"Ok, I think we should start over there!" Lana said as she pointed to some bushes by the rocks.

"Let's get going then!" Lincoln said as they rushed over.

The both got down on all fours and started crawling around to search for a frog. While doing so, Lana started a conversation.

"What's been up with you lately? It feels like I haven't seen you in days." She said, while separating some grass.

"I had a lot going on and it took a greater toll on my body than i expected." He replied. Not sure if she would buy it.

"You really shouldn't do that. Your body is like an engine, and if I know anything about engines, it's that you can't push them without regular maintenance." Lana said. Reaching into a small hole and feeling around.

"I'll keep that in mind, but since when did you start caring about my health?"

"Lincoln, I've always cared, I just don't like to get all mushy and junk. You know that." She replied.

As he thought about it, she was right. Lana was one of the more maternal of any of his sisters, she just showed it in other ways. "Now that you mention it, you do care for all of our animals." He said. "You're better at caring for others than just about any of us."

"Please, you'd have to be all wet to believe that." Lana said with an tossing wave.

A mischievous grin formed on Lincoln's face. "I'll show you all wet." He lifted Lana up and tossed her into the creek, completely soaking her.

"Hey!" Lana shouted, as she brushed hair out of her face.

"Now you're the one who's wet." Lincoln said as he started laughing. Just then, Lana pulled Lincoln's ankle towards her, causing him to fall over and make a huge splash.

"Sorry Linc, you asked for it." Lana said mockingly.

"Oh it's on!" Lincoln shouted as he tossed water at her.

The two played in the creek for a while. Laughing and screaming as they wrestles about the water. Neither could remember the last time they had played together, and it was long overdue for the two of them.

"Hey, Lincoln, did you really mean that?" Lana asked, as they stopped to catch their breath.

"Mean what?" He replied.

"That I'm better at caring than the others."

"There's no doubt about it. All of the animals love you, you dedicated your time to self incubating those duckling eggs, and you make sure every appliance in the house is properly maintained. Without you, everything could collapse." Lincoln as he wringed his shirt out. "Your good deeds may not stand out as much, but they're a vital part of the family and I wouldn't want to trade you for the world."

Lana was too shy to respond. Luckily she didn't have to because a load croak caught Lincoln's attention.

"Did you hear that? I think a frog is nearby!"

The two ran over to a shallow mud pile. Sure enough, a small green frog was sitting in it. Lana quickly scooped it up and held it in the air. "YES! WE FOUND ONE!" She shouted excitedly as she started hopping up and down.

Lincoln watched as Lana produced some rope from her pockets. She fitted it around the frog and tied several knots to create a makeshift harness.

"I didn't know you could tie knots like that…" He said quietly.

"Oh this? This is nothing. You should see the knots I can make for humans. When I trap someone, they're never getting out until I say so haha." Lana was amused by her knotting prowess, but it only served to horrify Lincoln. What if she was the one who tied him down that night? He had to escape the situation immediately.

"Well, I guess we should get going now." Lincoln said.

"Oh, alright…" Lana said softly.

The two walked slowly home, Lana happily gazing at her new frog the whole way. When they got to the house, they were the only ones in the backyard. It was barely 5:30, so their other sisters should start heading back home soon. Keeping to his plan, Lincoln went to his basket and pulled out another white rose.

"Here Lana, this is for you." He said as he handed it to her.

"Why would I want this?" She replied, almost in disgust. "You should give it to Lola, she's the one who likes to look at pretty and junk."

"True, Lola is pretty. She sparkles brightly like a gem. But you're subtle like this rose. No flashy colors, no deep lines to make you stick out." He slid the stem into her hand. "And because you're naturally so unassuming, you have the ability to look even prettier if you wanted. But you like this rose, you choose not to. You're you, and that is prettier than anything. Dirt and all." He said with a smile.

This caused Lana to blush. No one had ever told her anything like that before. "Thanks…" She said quietly. "I….I'm gonna go put my new frog in the tank." She said before running away.

" _Perfect. Just as planned. Two down, seven to go."_ He thought to himself as he grinned. Luna and Lana would be the most difficult, they were the least "girlie" of the girls. The others would likely accept the roses much faster, and with less effort. Still, he knew he couldn't underestimate them. Lana and Luna had already taken a lot out of him, his insides were screaming the entire time. _"I just gotta hold out a little longer."_ thought as he held his chest. _"Just a little longer."_ He picked up the basket and walked toward the house.

He was about to reach the backdoor when it shot open, causing Lincoln to jump back. Lynn hopped out the doorway.

"Ah Lincoln, perfect timing!" She said as she began to stretch. "I'm about to go on a post-game victory jog. Wanna come with?"

"You're going on a jog after your softball team played an entire game?!"

"Of course not, we played so well it got mercy ruled. So I need to let out my energy somehow."

"What's a mercy rule?"

"Not important, so are you in or what?"

"But you'll out jog me anyway."

"Well yeah, that's kind of the point. I need someone to serve as my benchmark."

Lincoln sighed. He really didn't want to go for a run, but he had to find someway to get alone time with Lynn. This was really the only option for him.

"Alight, let's do it." He said. He put down the basket again and began to stretch. "So where are we jogging to?"

Lynn cracked her back. "Just to the large tree six blocks down. Nothing crazy."

"Ok, I'm ready when you are."

Lynn counted to three, and then then they took off. Like Lincoln figured, Lynn was always in the lead. There just wasn't a reality where that wouldn't have been the case. She was a natural athlete and constantly exercised. Lincoln barely did any physical activity if he didn't have to. Still, he managed to keep a decent pace behind her.

" _She's probably going slow so I can keep up."_ He thought as he watched her back. Keeping up with Lynn was never easy, but she never liked a total annihilation when it wasn't a competition. If she wanted to, she could have sprinted to the tree and back in the amount of time it took them to reach it, so she must be in a particularly good mood.

When they got to the tree, they took a rest. Lincoln leaned against it and started to pant.

"You need to run more man, you're completely winded." Lynn said with a sigh, shaking her head.

"Whatever, at least you didn't completely smoke me this time." He replied.

"Well, I figured this might happen, so I went easy on you." Lynn insisted with pride.

"Yeah, and how were you so sure about that?"

"Can you actually beat me at anything? I overpower you in every aspect." Lynn let out a laugh as she said that. It was definitely true, but Lincoln wasn't about to let her have it without a fight.

"You're not that much better than me, I can probably win if I put enough effort in." He insisted.

Lynn shot back. "Prove it!"

"Name your challenge, I'll face you on your terms." Lincoln has a smug attitude about that. He knew he would probably lose the challenge, but that wasn't his goal. It was just a necessary means to get closer.

"Wrestling match. Right here, right now." Lynn said, cracking her knuckles in the process.

" _Uh oh…."_ Lincoln thought. He didn't expect her to suggest a wrestle. They had wrestled together several times before, and Lynn won every time outside of a single instance where he ambushed her. He took a gulp, _"Don't let fear get to you."_

"Alright, ready when you are!" He said as he took a stance.

"Whatever, your funeral."

Lynn dashed out at Lincoln. He caught her hands, but quickly struggled to not be taken down.

" _Crap! She's even stronger than I thought!"_ He said mentally as he fought to keep himself standing. He put in a good effort, but it all proved futile as his legs just weren't strong enough to keep up with her. WIthin a matter of minutes, Lynn toppled Lincoln to the ground and pinned him down.

She sat straight on his chest and look down on him. "Told ya you'd lose." She snickered.

Lincoln didn't mind losing. He had counted on that. But he was having a much bigger crisis. The feeling of Lynn's body on top of his gave him flashbacks to the other night. Horrible flashbacks. He didn't say a word, but he struggled to get out, now in a full on panic.

"Oh, you've still got some fight in you." Lynn said. She looked down at him again and flashed a sinister grin. "I like this side of you."

She fought to keep him pinned down. Lincoln, desperate to escape, was using every force in his body to push her off, but he wasn't able to. It reminded him of how helpless he was back on the night of his attack. His arms and legs may be free, and he may be able to see this time, but he was just as pathetic. Just as weak as his sister had his way with him. It may not be sexual this time, but it seemed just as victimizing. His mind went through a million thoughts at a rapid pace. This must have been what a veteran with PTSD felt like. An irrational fear in a rational situation with no signs of freeing himself.

"Just give in bro." Lynn said merrily. "Give in and I'll let you go."

That made him flip out even more. His heart was racing faster than it ever had before. He was sweating all over and rocking around like a trapped boar.

" _She's right."_ He thought. _"If I can get the courage to give in to her, I can get out of this….NO! I will die before I give in again!"_ Lincoln, fueled by pure adrenaline managed to free his arms. He through his hands on Lynn's shoulders and used every ounce of his strength to flip her around, getting the advantage and pinning her down.

Lynn looked at him in astonishment. "How did you suddenly get so strong?!" She said, still dazed by the situation.

Lincoln just stared down at her, panting from the stress he was in. As he looked at her. He saw the eyes of his attacker. He saw the eyes of someone who had haunted and tormented him for days. He saw the person who was ruining his life, and he was getting angry. He tightened his grip on her upper arms and curled his brow. Panting more and more.

"OW! That hurts Lincoln!" Lynn cried. But he didn't pay attention.

He was too caught up in his rage. He could end it all right now. He could make it so he would never get another message. He could get his justice for the violation of his body. He could redeem himself as a man all in this instant. He could-

"Lincoln! You win, I give, I GIVE!" Lynn shouted in a voice that almost sounded scared.

The sound of Lynn's changed expression made Lincoln snap out of his trance. His eyes grew softer again and he loosened his grip.

"Sorry….I, I just got caught up in the win." He said and he slid off of her and sat on the ground. "It's an….overwhelming feeling. I can see why you like it so much."

Lynn sat up. "It's fine…" She looked away and started rubbing her arm where he had gripped. "I was just shocked. I never knew you had that kind of strength in you." She looked back at him, then looked away again. "If I'm being honest, it was kind of cool." She started to go slightly red. She had never admitted defeat before, and she definitely wasn't used to praising her opponent in any competition. But she was a good enough sportsman to acknowledge an indisputable loss.

Lincoln just stared at the ground, ashamed of himself. How could he have let things get that far out of hand? He didn't even have proof that Lynn was the one who did it, but he treated her like she was. He physically harmed her, and might have even done worse. That wasn't him. That _couldn't_ have been him. He really had become a devil in disguise. He turned to his sister and latched other her, putting her off guard.

"I'm sorry Lynn, I never should have hurt you." He said, starting to tear up. "You deserve better than that. So much better….I'm just pathetic."

"You're not pathetic Lincoln." Lynn replied, returning his embrace. "You just got caught up in a moment. Anyone could lose themselves occasionally." She started caressing his hair. "Besides, it was a wrestling match, I expected to get hurt in someway." She let out a small chuckle. It was still hard to believe that Lincoln was able to turn that around so quickly. She definitely underestimated him. "Calm on, let's head back. We don't want to cause a scene out here."

The two got up and started home. Neither really said a word during the walk, but there was a sense of mutual respect emitting from the them. Lynn seeing Lincoln as more than her weak brother, and Lincoln seeing her as a more understanding person. There was still a strong suspicion that she was his attacker, but he would need far more proof before he could act, and he definitely had to prevent himself from going that crazy again.

" _That's twice today."_ He said to himself. _"First with Clyde at lunch, and now with Lynn here."_ He looked down at his hands. _"Can I really figure this out before I love myself completely?"_ Lincoln was now beginning to become afraid of himself. He used to think his sisters were his biggest problem, not knowing which one was messing with him being his biggest fear. But in a matter of hours he went from wanting to protect Luan from everything, to nearly assault Lynn. Just who was he becoming? _"I have to stick to my plan, that's the only way I can get through this…"_

When they got back to their front yard, Lincoln returned to his basket again and retrieved a third rose.

"Here Lynn, I want you to have this. It's no consolation for that wrestling outburst, but I think it suits you." He said as he gave her the flower.

"What does some girly flower have to do with me?" She said, looking at it confusedly.

"Well, roses come in many colors. Just like how you wear many jerseys depending on the sport you're playing. They're easily the most famous type of flower, and you're the MVP of anything you do. You're the top of the line, just like a rose." He said with a soft smile. "And this one is white, like my hair. That way whenever you look at it, you'll know I will always be there to encourage you. I'll be cheering you on from the sidelines forever."

"Woah….thanks." Lynn said in a shy voice.

Lincoln flashed her a wink before turning around. "I need to freshen up after all that activity." He grabbed his basked and started for the door. "I'll see you later, ok?" He walked off before she had the chance to respond.

The wrestling match was definitely a lapse in his mental state, but he was still able to keep strong and interact with three of his sisters in a row. He just had to give a rose to the rest of them before the night was up and his plan would be set in full motion. He was starting to feel proud of himself. He was really making great ground with overcoming his fears.

He made his way to Lucy and Lynn's room. Lynn was still outside, so Lucy should be in the room. He knocked on the door and her a quiet reply.

"Come in."

" _Perfect. She's in there."_ He thought as he opened the door. Rose in hand.

Lucy was sitting on her bed writing poetry in her notebook. Her standard hobby outside of holding mock funerals.

Here Lucy, I wanted to give this to you. He said, handing her the flower.

"It's white. Red roses are the color of death." She said, looking back got her notebook.

"That's where you're wrong." Lincoln replied. He walked over to the bed and sat down next to her. "This rose is pale, like the color of flesh when you get your blood drained." He said, putting it in her hand and putting his other on hers so that both of his hands are around the one that held the rose. "White is also the color of light, so this rose can act as a lantern to the underworld."

"Hm..I never thought of it that way." Lucy said, showing more enthusiasm than she usually did, albeit hard to tell if you didn't know her personally.

"White is also the color of unity, and my hair. So this rose can unite the two us, so you won't be alone. I will be your lantern, guiding you through the shadows."

To the average person, that would be anything but romantic. But this was definitely the type of thing that Lucy liked to hear, and it showed. She became flustered in a way that Lincoln had never seen before.

"Just keep it between us. A spiritual gift is not one to be shared." He said with a smile before getting up and exiting the room.

Now all he had to do was find Lori, Leni, Luan, Lola, and Lisa. Lisa would probably give him the most strain, so he decided to go to her first.

He walked over to her room and opened the door. She was at the back of the room mixing two non-descript chemicals together.

"That's not going to explode, is it?" He asked with great concern.

"The probability of that is minimal, but I suppose there is always a chance for an unforeseen reaction." She replied. "So to what do I owe this visit? It's hardly time for dinner."

Right to the point, exactly like Lisa. As he walked further in the room, he stepped on something. He looked down and saw that it was a black, mask like object.

"What's this thing?" Lincoln asked.

Lisa took a quick glance before returning to her beakers. "That's just an antitoxin mask of my own design, it uses liquid in the fibers to diffuse noxious chemicals in the air." She paused briefly to make steady herself as she poured more of the chemicals. "It was a massive design failure though. The eye mesh warped and it essentially transformed into a soggy blindfold." She said. "Putting it on makes breathing difficult as well, making its utility almost entirely impractical. More testing and a redesign is definitely need, that pro type has been sitting there for weeks now, you just haven't tossed it out yet."

Lincoln picked up the mask and looked at it. It didn't look familiar to him, but he decided to slip it on. Then it became extremely apparent that he had worn it before. The soggy breathing, the blurred out vision. This was the object that was on his face the other night. He quickly ripped it off his head and threw it on the ground, gasping for air.

"Just what exactly were you expecting to achieve by putting on a mask I just described as an unmitigated disaster?" Lisa condescended.

"I uh, I was just curious. That's all." Lincoln uttered with a nervous laugh.

" _Lisa?! Lisa created the mask that was put on my head? Just what is going on here?"_ He thought as he stepped away from the mask he threw on the ground.

"You have yet to answer my inquiry, what has brought you to interrupt my studies?"

"Oh, right. I wanted to give you this." Lincoln said as he revealed the rose to her.

Lisa gave an unamused look. "Charming, but I'll pass."

"Come on, don't be like that." Lincoln said.

"Sorry Lincoln, I have no desire to take some useless dead plantae for decorative purposes."

"Don't think of it like that. Consider it a good luck charm." He insisted.

"There's no such thing as luck Lincoln. Just random occurrences caused by non-random variables."

Lincoln was unsure how to respond to that. She wasn't superstitious in the least bit, and she definitely didn't hold any sentimental or symbolic value in anything. Determined to not take no for an answer, Lincoln walked up and dropped the rose stem into her beaker.

"NO!, what have you done?!" Lisa shouted.

The stem sucked up the chemicals and the flower changed in color from white to a bluish hue, one completely unfounded in nature.

"Huh, what's a fascinating reaction…" She said as she grabbed as clipboard and started writing. "By all calculations, it _should_ have burst into flames, filling this whole room with a less than safe amount of chemical smoke."

"Is there a safe amount chemical smoke?" He asked.

"There's no such thing as safe smoke Lincoln, just slightly less damaging strands and levels." Lisa turned to him. "Never the less, you have given me a new research specimen. I thank you for your loving gesture." Lisa picked up a few of the white petals that fell on the floor. "I especially need these to test the raw elements of this particular rose strand. Who knows what the florist crossbred into it."

"Right, I'll just leave you be then." Lincoln said as he backed away. He didn't really achieve much with Lisa, but at least she got the sentiment and accepted the gift.

"Uhuh, see you later." She said with a wave, her attention not wavering from the mutated flower in the chemicals.

Back in the hallway, Lincoln made his way to Luna and Luna's room. He wasn't sure where Luna was, but he needed to speak with Luan. With any luck, Luna was still out looking for him in town. He opened the door and poked his head in. Luan was alone, juggling apples while riding a unicycle. She turned her attention to him, but kept the juggling act going.

"You know, it's impolite to enter someone else's room without knocking first." She said.

"Doesn't seem to stop you from doing it." He sassed back.

"Haha, you really knobbed me there." Luan replied. "Get it? Knobbed."

Lincoln pretended he didn't hear the joke. "Anyway, I was wondering if I could have a word with you for a minute."

"Sure thing." Luan said. She hopped off the unicycle and caught all three apples in one hand all with one elaborate gesture.

"WOW, you're getting great at your clown stunts!" Lincoln said, amazed at the spectacle he just witnessed.

"Thanks, but wait until these braces come off and I can practice eating the apples mid act. Then you'll really be thrown for a toss. Haha, toss…"

She set the apples and down and put away the unicycle. Turned to Lincoln, she spoke first.

"I have a feeling this is about last night?" She said nervously.

"Technically it was this morning." Saying that, Lincoln expected some sort of clock based pun. Maybe an "A.M." being changed to "am" joke or something, but he got nothing. This was a rare moment where Luan kept a straight face. Something that Lincoln almost never saw, yet in one day he had witnessed it twice.

"You're not wrong though." He said.

Luan looked away. "I know me coming in, waking you up, violating your space, and then breaking down like that much have been uncomfortable." She said in a mousey voice. "I was just super worried about you not being you. I don't want you to change... You can be mad at me if you want, I'll understand."

Lincoln smiled at her. "That's exactly why I'm not mad." Luan looked at him, not sure what he was saying. "Yeah you were going to play a prank on me using props that I paid for, but you were just trying to cheer me up. Out of everyone, you took it upon yourself to cheer me up. No one else did that, and that makes you special." He took her hand and placed the rose in it.

"I want you to have this. Think of it as a symbol of how I feel about you. I can never act mad at you for looking out for me. Rather, I love knowing that you'll always be there when I feel lost."

"Lincoln…." Luan started to talk, but she was interrupted by a sudden hug from Lincoln.

"You don't need to say anything. Not right now." He said as he gently stroked her hair. "Just know that I trust you, and you can visit me whenever you need…..just don't go booby trapping my room again."

They both laughed for a bit before Lincoln departed. When he closed the door, he walked towards the end of the hall. Luan never did give him a response. And he really didn't want it, not yet. He still had to speak with Lori, Leni and Lola to give them their roses. Not only that, Luan scared him more than the others. She was the one who could break into his room without him knowing. Anyone can do that and leave no traces behind could easily be the person sending him the intimidating letters, and indeed, could easily have gotten enough evidence to frame anyone else for the crime. He didn't want to single her out, but he trusted her the least.

He approached Lori and Leni's room and knocked. There was a very high likelihood that both girls would be in there, so he would have to put on his best performance yet to make sure neither caught on while he spoke to both of them simultaneously.

The door opened and Leni greeted him with her usual cheerful expression.

"Hi Linky, how are you?" She said happily.

"I'm good Leni, can I come in? I need to talk to you and Lori."

"Sure thing."

Leni let him the room and shut the door. Lori was laying stomach down on her bed. Kicking her legs slowly while she texted. She turned her glance to Lincoln as he entered.

"Oh, hey….about the salon I-er" Lori started talking, but quickly stopped herself when she remembered that Leni was in the room. "Never mind." She didn't want to betray any trust that Lincoln might have entrusted her with.

"No no, this is about that. I want the both of you in on this.' He said with a smile. He had been putting on a lot of fake smiles today. His lips were starting to hurt, but he had to power through it.

He pulled out the two white roses and handed one to each girl.

"You're both the most important people in the world to me." He started. "You're the sisters I can trust and depend on for anything. I would be entirely lost without you." He turned to Leni. "You keep me smiling constantly with your warm persona, and you never keep a conversation dull." He then looked to Lori. "And you can sense when something is wrong even if I try to hide it. Today at the salon you showed me a side of you that I never thought about, but I probably always felt was there."

He reached out and held both of their hands. "You're the two most caring, considerate, comforting, and beautiful people I know in this world. These roses are a gift from me to repent how I feel." He turned his glance between both girls to see if his speech was working. To his amusement, it was. "They're white like my hair, but that makes them unique. A white rose means unity, and I feel like I'm united with the two of you forever.

He broke the hand chain and hugged Lori. He quietly whispered in her ear before breaking away. "You're more special because you have the red one from me as well." He then went and hugged Leni. "Yours is more special because I left a mark on the stem, just for you." He whispered to her before moving away.

Standing in the middle of the room, he started rubbing the back of his head. "I know this was kind of awkward, and it probably didn't make sense, but it needed to be said." He quickly darted for the door. While stepping out, he poked his head back in and gave them both a wink.

"Let's just keep this between us." He said before closing the door.

" _That couldn't have gone more perfect if I had scripted it!"_ Lincoln said as he walked down the hall with a smug smile. Of course, he had scripted it. His whole personality at the moment was a tough facade he was putting on to reach his goal of causing the attacker to break. In reality, he was starting to waiver. He wanted to collapse and cry. He had just spent one on one time with eight sisters, each one more stressful than the last. There was a sharp pain in his stomach and he felt nauseous. But he had to press on. There was only one sister left, Lola.

Lincoln lost his balance and had to lean against the wall. He held his mouth and started coughing. Thankfully, nothing came up. The toll this was taking on his body was too much.

" _You can do this Lincoln. Just one more and you can rest."_ He said to himself. _"Just ONE more."_

Lucky for him, Lola and Lana's bedroom was directly next to his, so his retreat could be much easier this time around. He mustered up the strength and knocked on the door.

Lola's voice called out. "You may enter."

Lincoln walked in. Lola was at her makeup table.

" _Perfect, Lana must have gone back outside."_ He thought as he approached Lola.

"Can I help you?" She asked sternly.

"You can. I wanted to congratulate you on that rehearsal we did the other day." He said ina. Positive tone.

The mere mention of the rehearsal caused Lola to blush. But she masked the emotion. "Oh that silly thing. It was a passable performance I guess." She said with a scoff. "I'm not doing it with my actual partner though."

"Why not?" He asked. "You and Lucy worked so hard on the choreography."

Lola looked away. "I don't know, it just didn't feel the same with him. It wouldn't have worked out."

Lincoln smiled at that. _"Perfect! Now I know what to use as bait."_ Lincoln walked closer to her. "Well, I personally think that's a good thing."

Lola flashed a puzzled look. "Why's that?"

"Because that means it can forever be our special moment." Lincoln kneeled to her level and pulled out the rose. "Here's my gift to congratulate you on our performance." Lola took the rose and looked back at him. "I hope when you look at it, you can remember that you'll always be my lucky star, and that you shine brighter than anything else." Lincoln winked at her and gave her a hug.

"...T-thanks Linky" Lola said quietly, completely caught up in the moment.

"Now if you excuse me, I need to go change. I just had a run with Lynn earlier." He said as he made his retreat. Lucky for him, Lola did not follow. She he walked away, he smiled to himself. _"I did it. I got all 9 of them to accept the gift, and now each one can start to feel as conflicted as I have."_ He thought as he escaped.

Once he was in the confines of his room, he locked the door. And collapsed on the floor in a fit of coughs and gags. Hot tears started running rapidly down his cheeks. His eyes burning red. His whole body hurt, he felt like he was suffocating.

He crawled to his bed and managed to lift himself onto it. As he laid on his sides, he curled up and started holding his head.

The real Lincoln had returned. Masquerading as him had vanished. He could now let out his truest of true emotions. Fear and disgust. Only this time, it was directed at himself. He just lied to and manipulated all of his sisters. Surely the majority of them were innocent. Meaning he had just played with the hearts of eight innocent girls who had legitimate love and concern for him. He nearly puked as he thought of that. In the name of fear, he had temporarily become a monster.

As he laid there, he starting thinking about all the things he said. None of them were lies. He deeply loved all of his sisters and he meant the words he said to them for the most part, but the intention was false. The emotional charge was false. They were things that were understood, he had no reason to say them, and he definitely didn't have to say them in that manner. And the roses, what kind of sick gesture was that? He literally used a tactic of the attacker towards everyone. How could he have been so cruel as to use a shotgun to hit a small target when he knew the bullets would strike every target.

As he fell asleep, all he hoped was that he would be able to be forgiven for his actions. From both his sisters, and himself.

When he woke up the next morning, he felt weaker than usual, and he was light headed. Standing up made him dizzy, but he had to fight it. He needed to be strong.

" _Stay intact body, it'll be over soon. Then you can rest."_ He thought as he walked towards his door to use the restroom. But he stepped on something. Right in front of his door was a note. It must have been slid under the door in the night.

He opened it and read the contents.

" **You were really direct last night. I liked that a lot. I'll definitely cherish the rose.**

 **But if you ever flirt like that to anyone of our sisters like that again, YOU'LL REGRET IT!**

 **Love you Lincoln! XOXO"**

Tapped to the bottom of the paper was a white rose petal with a small drop of red on it. Lincoln examined the drop. There was no mistaking it. It was blood.

"What have I done?" He said, feeling even more sick than before.

* * *

 **This chapter's composition has an interesting story to it. At first I was stuck with four chapters that I had no idea how to flesh out. One related to Luna, one to Lana, one to Lynn, and one to Lisa. I had the basics down to each, but I didn't know how to fill an entire 5k word chapter to them. Luna of course already had a chapter, but that got axed, so I needed to rewrite her involvement entirely. So I decided to jut add all of them together, and in doing so, this chapter has the most plot progression AND the largest word count at over 8k. So sorry if it's longer than you expected. ANd if it seems like it doesn't flow as well together, that's why.**

 **Oddly enough, this is also the fasted turn over between chapters(and technically between stories if you saw the may or may not be oneshot about Lola I put up earlier).**

 **We're now at a pivotal point. Lincoln has interacted with all of them individually, seen evidence in each one, and has started a plan to get the culprit to break. But will the cost on his own physical and mental well-being be worth it? He's slowly destroying himself throughout the chapter, but he has a strong determination to see this through, gotta hand it to the little guy.**

 **Now for a small bit of trivia. When I originally drafted this story, I had absolutely no intention of using roses at all. However, after the second chapter, I decided it needed a cover, so I quickly whipped something up. I wanted the sign in the living room to be on it, and I put red splats all over it. Originally this was supposed to be blood to symbolize the loss of innocence, but that wasn't very clear. I didn't want the cover to look like a horror story, so I drew a rose and placed it in the image. I had left the imagery completely untouched and actually forgot the rose was even there. In hindsight, that felt silly. So I retooled the story to feature roses as a prominent form of symbolism. Funny, right?**


	7. Chapter 7 - Finding the Sky

Chapter 7 - Finding The Sky

* * *

Lincoln's knees gave in. The world seemed like it was going in slow motion as his head slammed into his desk. The pain was great, but he had an even more urgent feeling in his gut. He quickly crawled to the corner of his room and stuck his head in a small wastebasket.

 ***BLEH***

Lincoln emptied the contents of his stomach. He hadn't been eating much, but that didn't help him at all. In fact, it made each chuck hurt even worse. His sides hurt like he was being stabbed, a taste of ash was in his mouth, and his eyes couldn't stop burning.

How many times had he vomited since Saturday morning? He couldn't count anymore. He rarely barfed like this, even when he was actually sick.

"No, I _AM_ sick." He told himself. He had intentionally messed with all of his sisters in an attempt to make the guilty one crack, and instead all he did was provoke her even further. And now the stakes were even higher for him.

He rolled backwards and leaned against his bed, and started thinking about the note in his hand "You flirt with any one of our sisters again, you'll regret it…" Just what could that mean? He took extra care to make sure that none of the others were around when he approached them. With the exception of Lori and Leni, they were all one on one exchanges. Does that mean that one of them is the culprit?

"No, it's possible that he got found out. These walls are paper thin after all." He said under his breath. There was also the possibility that they held a sisters only meeting at some point in the night. Those weren't entirely unheard of, but it would severely put a damper in his plans if that was the case.

He looked over to his clock. It was just about time for breakfast. He wanted to skip out on that. He wanted to tell his mother he was sick to stay home from school and avoid the world. But that couldn't happen. He needed to be at that table so he could observe his sisters. He needed to know if any of them would act differently around him.

Lincoln started to make his way down the stairs. He wasn't sure what he would find once he reached the dining room. His head booming with ideas, causing it to throb like the worst migraine he had ever felt in his life. He could barely walk without stumbling. His whole body was hot with pain, and his head still stinging from his fall. But he kept on moving. He wasn't walking straight, but he was at least able to keep himself upright without holding onto the wall.

When he finally reached the dining room, he put on a good face. He was getting better and better at masking his pain every day, so he didn't find it that difficult this time.

"Good morning everyone!" Lincoln said with a smile and a wave.

There was an audible gasp from everyone in the room when he entered. _"Interesting…"_ He thought as he continued on.

He walked around the table until he found an empty seat in between Luna and Leni. When he sat down, he noticed something odd. Both girls scooted away from him. It was ever so slight, but it was enough for him to take notice. As he poured himself a bowl of cereal, he examined the room. No one was talking. The silence was made even more awkward as they were all clearly avoid his eyes.

" _Hmm, this is unusual, but I have to play it cool."_ He thought as he put the box back on the table. Lincoln was far from hungry. If he was being honest with himself, and he wasn't, the idea of eating anything made him want to puke again. But he had to eat to keep up appearances. He shoveled a few spoonfuls of cereal into his mouth and began to chew.

"So, what's everyone got going on today?" He asked with a swallow.

There was no response.

He went back to his cereal, and then tried to talk again. "Lynn, got any sports games today?"

Still no response. When he went back to his cereal a third time, he used a trick he had seen in an old detective tv show. Angling your spoon at just the right angle so you can use it as a mirror to see around the room without being noticed by the other people. Doing this, he was able to see something that was very strange. Every single one of his sisters was staring directly at him. None of them eating, none of them talking. And every time he lifted his head, they would move theirs so that he couldn't notice.

" _Just what is going on here?"_ Lincoln thought. His sisters were all averting his gaze and not talking to him, but they were staring at him every chance they got. _"I need to get to the bottom of this. I don't care what that letter said, I need to start pushing!"_

"Hey Luna, I was wondering if you could tell me the pros and cons between a six string and a twelve string guitar." He asked with a smile. Luna moved her eyes slightly to him, but then quickly looked away. It wasn't a great reaction, but it was something.

"Leni, Is there any new fashion trend at school?" Leni looked at Lincoln a little longer than Luna did, but it was essentially the same reaction.

Lincoln wasn't quite sure what was going on with them, but at least he was starting to get responses from them.

"This room is uncomfortably quiet…." He acknowledged. "Hey Luan, why don't you tell a joke to break the ice in here?"

Luan didn't budge. That started to worry Lincoln. Normally she would jump at any chance she could to tell a joke, prompted or otherwise. But here she couldn't ignored a direct request. Something was up. But that wasn't necessarily a bad thing. He could use this to his advantage.

"Ok fine!" He shouted, causing all of them to jump. "Ignore me all you want, I'm outta here!" Lincoln pushed his chair away from the table and began to storm off. With any luck, one of two things could happen. Either one or all of them would run after him, or they would all start to feel bad for avoid him. No matter what happened though, his original plan had completely failed. If they hall acted weird, then there was no way to validate who had raped him.

When Lincoln got to the living room, he became face to face with Lana who was sitting on the couch.

"WHA!" She shouted, looking at him with a horrified expression.

"Whoa there, what's with that reaction?" Lincoln asked, unsure of what was going on.

"You really haven't noticed yet?" Lucy said from behind, causing Lincoln to jump.

"Notice what?" He asked.

Lucy pointed at his face. "There's a giant gash above your eyebrow, it's been bleeding this entire time." She replied. She then looked away. "It's quite unsettling...even for me."

"Wh-what?" Lincoln said in shock.

He slowly touched his forehead and felt an incredible amount of pain. He winced at it and quickly shot his arm back down. Clenching his fist, he forced his eyes open and looked at his hand. It was covered in blood. He began to shiver. He had never seen so much blood on his hands before. And it wasn't the light red blood you see from a paper cut or a nosebleed, it was a deep, dark red. The kind that you see in the movies.

He became even more light headed. The whole world started spinning rapidly. He could see Lucy's mouth moving, but he couldn't hear a thing. There was just a loud ringing sound filling his ears. His vision started to go blurry.

"Not good." He said. "I….I'm going…..down…."Lincoln fell backwards. He could feel someone catch him, but he didn't get the chance to see who it was. Everything was just black.

Lincoln was in a void. He appeared to be floating. All of his limbs were free, but he move forward. He was stuck in the same space.

"Where am I?" Lincoln said.

"You're asleep, you fainted from the shock of seeing your own blood….You really shouldn't stir the pot like that." Said an ominous voice. "The results can be hazardous."

Lincoln spun around, but he could find the voice. It seemed to be coming from all directions and no direction at the same time. "Who, who said that?" He shouted. His voice echoed all around him.

"What does it matter?" The voice replied. "You won't do anything even if you were to find out." The voice was heavily distorted. It was barely even human. There were no characteristics that could be determined as belonging to someone he knew.

"That's not true!" He said. "I, I'll-"

"You'll what?" It interrupted. "You'll act out in violence again? Is that your master plan?"

"NO! That was just an accident." Lincoln started to shake.

"Oh? Then maybe you're planning to mentally sabotage them." The voice began to snicker evilly. "It would be the fair thing to do, wouldn't it?"

"I….I" Lincoln couldn't finish the sentence. What was he planning to do?

"Why do you seek the answer anyway?" It asked him.

"They hurt me more than anything! I need to know who did it and why!" He said, confident in his answer.

"Was it really the rapist who hurt you, or was it yourself?" The voice said.

"What do you mean?" Lincoln asked.

"Look at yourself Lincoln."

Suddenly, a hooded figure appeared before him. It's hands slowly went towards the hood. Lincoln took a big gulp. The figure removed the hood to reveal a mirror copy of himself. Lincoln stood in horror as he looked.

"Your eyes are bloodshot, your hair is ragged, your skin has grown pale, you can't walk straight, you're constantly feeling ill, and you were too caught up in your little scheme to notice that you banged your head up pretty badly." The other Lincoln said, speaking in the voice he had been hearing. "The sister who raped you may have caused you some trauma, but you have been hurting yourself far worse than they ever did, and you were too stupid to know it."

"I didn't mean to!" Lincoln cried. "I just needed to get her to reveal herself to me!"

"Do you think she's going to at this point?" It said sternly. "If anything, you've made it so she will never come clean as long as you live."

"How can you know that?" He asked.

"Look at the letters." The other Lincoln snapped his hands and all of the letters Lincoln had received appeared before him. "Almost all of them say they love you in it, do they not?"

Lincoln looked them over. It was definitely the case.

"You would want to confess to someone if your love notes caused them to physically harm themselves?"

"But if they truly loved me, why would they rape me like that?!" Lincoln argued. "Why would they send me taunting messages like that, why would they threaten me with a bloodstained rose petal like that?!" Lincoln was beginning to get angry. "There is no love here, only cruelty!" Lincoln's eyes sunk. "Maybe I should just stay asleep forever."

"Cruelty, huh?" The other Lincoln began to laugh. "They were wrong in what they did, but you were the one who choice to parade around like a lunatic instead of directly approaching them. This all could have been solved so easily if all you did was ask for a family meeting." It held out the stained rose petal. "Tell me Lincoln, did you use forensic testing on this?"

"N...no?" Lincoln said in confusion.

"Then how can you be 100% positive that this is blood and not something else?" It turned the petal around and examined it closely. "It could be paint, nail polish, lipstick, food coloring, ink, you have no way of knowing for sure. Perhaps they were just trying to send a message."

"A message like what? That I'll be physically harmed if I talk to our other sisters again?"

"That's a possibility." The other Lincoln said. He turned his attention to Lincoln and shot him a condescending look. "Or maybe she was making it red to match the red rose petal she gave you." He let out a chuckle. "Red roses mean romance, and wasn't it you who said white roses mean unity?"

Lincoln angrily grabbed his doppelgänger by the collar and pulled him close. "Cut the shit, how dare you try to accuse me of being the villain here!"

Other Lincoln rolled his eyes. "Oh of course, how could the guy who is literally threatening himself with violence right now possibly be the culprit when he's too busy playing the victim?"

Lincoln released him. He was right. He had been too brash, too quick to assume things that he lost sight of himself.

"Oh cheer up sport, you were the one who decided to become a devil, where you not?"

"That was-"

"That was you giving up on yourself." The Other Lincoln interrupted. "It's no use lying to me kiddo, I am you." A grin formed on his face. "That's what happens when you start splitting your personality like that."

Lincoln sighed. "Alright, "me" what do you suggest I do?"

"I think that _we_ should wake up." Other Lincoln said. He glanced down at his freshly manicured fingernails. "There's a lot of young girls waiting for us to return to consciousness, who are we to deny nine angels of the devil they've grown attached to?"

"Don't you mean eight?" Lincoln said. "One of them raped me."

"Doesn't make her intentions any less pure." Other Lincoln insisted. "Perhaps she just wasn't sure how to express herself and lost control of her better judgement." He blew on his hands and buffed his nail with his thumb. "At one point, we may have been able to be mad at her, but at this point that would be hypocritical, no?"

"So you want me to just forgive and forget?!"

"Of course not Lincoln. But _we_ need to at least hear her out." Other Lincoln put his hand on Lincoln's shoulder. "We've put some terrible strain on our body, and in the process we've probably been putting a lot more strain on our family. Let's wake up and fixing it the Lincoln Loud way."

"But how? I'm weak,I'm a failure." Lincoln said with his head down.

The Other Lincoln lifted his head up softly with his hand. "No man is a failure who has friends Lincoln." He gave him a smile. "And what we have is better than friends, we have a village's worth of family who would go to the moon and back for us. One of them got carried away, so we need to do our part and go to the moon for them!"

"But we don't even know who that was." Lincoln said. "And what if I take it bad when I finally find out who it was?"

"There isn't really a way for us to take it well Lincoln. I hated that night just as much as you did." Other Lincoln replied. "But we can at least listen to her whole story and then decide how to proceed. But we have to do it as ourself, not some devil, and not some self loathing shell."

"That's easy for you to say, you're not the one going through it."

The Other Lincoln started to laugh hysterically. "You're joking right?" He said, a tear in his eye. "I'm _you_ Lincoln, and you're _me._ " He touched the area above Lincoln's heart. "After you got raped, your psyche went so far out of whack that you lost track of me, you're true self. But I never left. You always had the ability to find me, to find the real you."

"Then, why did it take until now?" Lincoln asked.

"Simple, you haven't been getting enough rest." Other Lincoln said casually. "You were trying to solve this whole mess with the mentality of a starving, sleep deprived barbarian."

"Then, what if I go back to being that as soon as I wake up?" Lincoln asked, completely unsure of himself.

The Other Lincoln punched him in the arm.

"Ow!" Lincoln said.

"You still haven't realized it, have you?" He said.

"Realized what?"

"Your sisters are what keep you from being like that." Other Lincoln replied. "Just look back to all the interactions you had with them. Modeling with Leni, manicures with Lori, guitar with Luna, rehearsing with Lucy and Lola, frog hunting with Lana, racing Lynn, making scientific discoveries with Lisa, comforting Luan, they are the key to you being you."

Lincoln thought about it. Maybe he was right?

"I am right." Other Lincoln said.

"How did you know what I was thinking?" Lincoln asked.

"Because I'm you dummy, we share the same thoughts." He said with a laugh. "Just don't ignore them like you've been and you should be able to find the courage to get through this."

"You're right." Lincoln said. "I may not know what will happen when I see them next, and I may still be afraid of all of them, but I can't figure anything out without them around me." Lincoln smiled. He held his hand out to his doppelgänger. "You ready to wake up buddy?"

The Other Lincoln smiled back and took shook his hand strongly. "I thought you would never ask."

"Alright then." Lincoln said.

"LET'S DO THIS!" They both shouted as the void started getting brighter. "It's time to see the sky!"

The view was white as Lincoln opened his eyes. But it was a familiar white. There were a few cracks, and some odd textures everywhere. It was one of the most familiar sights in the world to him. The ceiling of his bedroom.

"HE'S AWAKE!" A voice cried out.

Lincoln didn't even have time to breath before he was rushed by all of his sisters, including Lily.

"Hey guys, sorry to bother you." He said with a light chuckle. He reached up to feel his forehead, but Lori quickly slapped his hand away.

"No touching! The doctor put some stitches in." She said strictly.

"Yeah, he said if you pick at it too much, you'll get a scar." Luna added.

"I won't have one already?" He asked.

"No, thankfully it wasn't that bad." Lynn said with a sigh.

"What time is it anyway?" Lincoln asked. He was about to sit up, but his sisters pushed him back down.

"It's noon, we all stayed home to look after you." Leni said.

"Yeah, what gives Lincoln?! I thought I told you to take care of yourself!" Lana said, tears starting to form in her eyes.

"I'm sorry Lana, I wasn't paying attention and tripped this morning." Lincoln replied. "I didn't even noticed the cut until Lucy chimed in."

"I never mistake real blood when I see it." Lucy said.

"Not only that, your blood sugar levels were uncharacteristically low" Lisa injected.

"Anyway guys, I'm sorry for scaring you all like that again, I promise it won't happen a third time."

"It better not, or you'll really be sorry!" Lola said angrily.

Lincoln started to laugh. "Alright, I'll hold you to that." He said playfully. Lincoln looked around the room. All of his sisters were present, now would probably be the best time to start being honest like he told himself.

"Hey guys, I need to say something." He started. "Something came up and it caused me to want to avoid you all these past couple of days." His eyes wandered around. All of his sisters were attentively looking at him. "I thought that was the only thing I could do, but I was wrong. I need you all more than anything." His lips moved into a soft smile. "I guess what I want to say is, I'm sorry for how I acted. I love you all, and I hope you can forgive me. For everything"

He was greeted but a huge hug from all of his sisters combined. In a world full of nothing but fear and pain, this moment was pure bliss. It reminded him a lot of the moments just before this all started. Lincoln started to cry. As he looked to his sisters, he noticed they all had tears coming out of their closed eyes. Things would be difficult going forward, but with the love and support of these ten angels, maybe he could finally start to heal.

After the hug, his sisters excused themselves so he could rest. Lincoln checked his room,no new notes were anywhere to be found, but that was fine. He opened his backpack and wrote his one of his own.

" **Whoever you are, I love you and I'm ready to talk about all of this -Lincoln."**

If she would keep her trend going, she would come in while he was asleep to try and leave another. Lincoln looked over and saw a vase on his desk. Inside it was a bouquet of nine red roses. He went over to his basket and pulled out the last of his white roses. He placed in the vase and left the note alongside it.

"Perfect." He said as he looked at the scene. Nine roses of red and one of white. It was just like his family. He had given them all a rose, and they gave him one back.

Lincoln took his pain medication and laid back down. As he closed his eyes, he started to smile. Tomorrow was another day, and he was going to solve this whole thing. He may have been lost for a while, but he was found. He now had the strength to do anything, and it was with him all along.

* * *

 **Two things heavily inspired this chapter. The first was a spontaneous nosebleed that occurred while I was writing this. The second was a time when I was a kid where I actually did bust my forehead open. I guess I was in shock of something because I didn't notice at all. I only found out because my family freaked out when they saw me, which confused me before making me freak out when I saw the blood(oddly enough, this was not the only point in my life where I severely injured myself and didn't notice until someone else reacted to it, one of which caused a permanent scar on my arm.)**

 **I also wanted to finally address the internal struggle and bring it to an end. It has been the primary theme of this whole story, and I didn't want it to get stale. So with his confidence back, and his fears taken away, can Lincoln finally figure out which sister did it? How will he react to it? Only time will tell.**


	8. Chapter 8 - It Had To Be You

Chapter 8 - It Had To Be You

* * *

By his parent's request, Lincoln was to stay home from school. He insisted he could attend normally, but they wouldn't hear any of it. Since their other children were just as worried as they were, they decided to let them all stay to look after him. To which almost immediately, they made him go back to sleep.

Lincoln popped his eyes open the moment he heard his bedroom door shut. He went to the vase and found a new note replacing the one he had left the day before. Quickly, he flipped it open and read the contents.

" **OK, I'LL TALK TO YOU TONIGHT. AND YES, I WILL TELL YOU** **EVERYTHING** **"**

It was the most cryptic message so far, but it served its purpose. Lincoln would finally know who it was. His clock barely said "10:00 a.m." So he had a while to wait. He wanted to think about who it could be more, but he heard footsteps approaching his door. He darted to his bed and hid the note under his pillow. He watched as his door knob slowly turned and his door opened.

"Ah, so you're awake." Lori said as she stood in the doorway.

"Couldn't sleep, my head hurts too much." He replied.

"That's what the medication is literally for." She said with a tinge of attitude. "They don't call them painkillers for nothing."

"Well they aren't killing much of anything if you ask me." Lincoln groaned. "So what brings you in here?"

"Oh, so I need a purpose do I?" Lori laughed. She sat at the end of Lincoln's bed and stretched her legs. "If you must know, I'm on Lincoln duty."

"Is that what you guys are calling it?"

"Lynn coined that, I just couldn't think of anything better to replace it with." Lori shrugged. "It's not the most inaccurate description if you ask me."

"So I take it you'll all be taking shifts again?"

"More or less."

Lincoln and Lori both laughed at the intentional bluntness of the conversation. It had felt like ages since they were able to have a "normal" conversation and neither was a fan of that.

"So what happened with your head?" Lori asked. "Or do you still not trust me?"

"I have complete trust in you." He said. "It was myself who I lost trust in."

"What do you mean?"

"Well for a while there, I wasn't talking, acting, or even thinking like me. I was so busy in thinking that I couldn't trust you, that I failed to see that the person I had become didn't trust the old me."

Lori had been getting used to talk like this from Lincoln, but it still didn't feel right to her. "So, where are you know in relation to trusting yourself?"

Lincoln smiled. "That's easy, I got rid of that new me. He wasn't doing any favors anyway." He looked over to his window and watched the rays of sunlight hit the floor. " I may not fully trust myself still, but I know I can trust you, and that'll get me through it all."

"I'm glad to have you back then." Lori said with a soft smile. "So may I ask that you use your newfound trust and enlighten me?"

Lincoln chuckled. "Quick to the point as ever I see?"

"You would literally go on forever with your little expositions if I wasn't."

"Fair enough….I guess before I begin, I should ask you how much you already know."

Lori stayed quiet for a bit. Her eyes darted around the room, as if they were looking for a way out of the question.

"...we had a meeting." She replied.

"A meeting?" Lincoln asked.

"Yeah, the nine of us. We discussed a lot." Lori was beginning to fidget. She was nervous and Lincoln wanted to know why.

"And what exactly was it that you heard?"

"Can't say!" Lori shouted.

Lincoln was taken aback. "You can't say? Why not?"

Lori sighed. "Because we all agreed to not talk to you about it until tonight, when you would get your answers."

Lincoln latched onto the term "answers" almost instantly. "So you DO know something!" He said, barely managing to keep his voice down. "How much do you know? Do you know who…" he stopped for a second. "Was it y-"

"Just be patient!" Lori interjected. "Things are more complicated than you realize, I had already promised not to tell you this much, please just take my word that you will know everything later."

Lincoln was starting to get annoyed. "Fine, but tell me one thing." He said sternly. "How long have you known?"

Lori rubbed her arm and looked away. "Since before it happened."

Lincoln went into shock. How could she have known for that long and acted like she was oblivious in front of him? He was about to push her further, but he got interrupted by the sound of her phone going off.

"My shift here is up, keep all of this between us please." Lori said as she faced the door. "I only told you this much because I didn't want to betray your trust."

She slid out of the door and left Lincoln alone to his thoughts.

" _If Lori knows everything, and they had a meeting, then that means they all know."_ Lincoln started to shake with rage. _"Have they all known this whole time?! Did none of them think of me in any of this?!"_ Lincoln felt like he had entered the third act of some weird scifi conspiracy movie. He was waiting for the kicker to come in and tell him that the world was all a simulation or something, but it never came. He was in reality.

He was taken for a loop by Lori's confession, but Lincoln was able to calm down after a while. _"I just have to be open to their explanation."_ He thought as he laid back. But even with that, he still couldn't shake the distaste from the idea that for the rest of the day, the would all be lying to him in someway. Then again, Lori was able to be honest and let him onto the big charade. So maybe the others would be willing to part with some info as well.

Almost like clockwork, Lincoln heard a knock on the door as he finished that thought.

"Come in." He said.

He watched as Luna walked through the door.

"Sup bro, how's it hanging?" She asked.

" _Hm, Luna huh? Just what is there schedule like?"_ Lincoln thought as he looked at his sister. "Nothing much, just waiting for these meds to kick in." He said with a half hearted chuckle. "Did you come to try and rock it out with some guitar music?"

"Harsh bro, harsh." Luna said as she gave him a wink. "Can't a big sister worry when her little bro takes a nasty stage dive and messes up his forehead?"

"It wasn't quite a dive." Lincoln said. "It was more of collapse"

"First rule of rock little bro, always pass an accident off as intentional performance art" Luna replied. "That way you never have to explain yourself if you don't want to."

"Yeah? How often do you do that?" Lincoln asked.

Luna got quiet. Lincoln wasn't sure why, but for whatever reason, that pressed a button with her.

"I get by with what I can manage." She replied. "Sometimes a little, sometimes a lot."

"Relax Luna, I'm not trying to interrogate you here." Lincoln said assuringly.

Luna let out a sigh and started to laugh. "Sorry, I can get carried away sometimes. Can't really help it."

"I do have one question for you though." Lincoln said.

Unsure of what he was about to say, Luna gestured for him to go on.

"Tell me a story to get my mind off this headache?"

Luna laughed again. "Where did that come from?"

"Well, you're the one who goes to all these rock shows and things, surely if any of us has learned some good stories, it would have been you."

Luna sat on the bed next to Lincoln. "Can't argue with that!" She exclaimed happily. "Alright, whatcha wanna hear about?"

"Tell me about whatever crazy thing you did last Sunday."

"Alright then, buckle up because that day was wild!"

Lincoln listened intently as Luna went on and on. Apparently she had gotten word through some message boards that Mick Swagger's tour bus was taking a rest two towns over. So she caravans with some of her friends in an attempt to break into the bus and get some memorabilia. Lincoln was pretty sure she added in an extra car chase or four, but there isn't something inherently wrong with adding extra bits of "hollywood" to a story. More than anything, he was glad to just be able to tune out and listen. Luna had always been great at telling stories and this one was no different.

"And that's why you don't throw water on an oil based flame." Luna said, finishing her tale.

"Wow, and what happened with the goat?" Lincoln asked.

"You know….I actually don't know." Luna tapped her finger on her lip. "I imagine it's still in that emergency bunker, but who can say?" Luna checked her phone. "Oh man, it's been an hour. I gotta jam."

"Do you have to go? It's been fun talking with you."

"I'd stay if I could, but we promised each other we would only be in her an hour at a time." Luna replied. "If we didn't, you would be hounded by all of us at once all day."

"That's not necessarily a bad thing." Lincoln said.

"It is when you're supposed to be resting."

"Well, do you get to come back at all?"

Luna looked through her phone for a minute. Lincoln figured she had the schedule written down in there.

"Not really, the rest of shifts are pretty solidly set." She said.

"Can I at least see that schedule?" He asked. "I would like to know who to expect and when."

"No can do, we all agreed not to."

"Well that figures." Lincoln groaned. "Is there anything you _can_ do?"

"Of course there is." Luna said confidently. She scooted closer to Lincoln and gave him a hug. "No matter what, I can always do this." As she hugged him, she felt his hair in between her fingers. "This whitelace looks best without blood drops." When she broke away from the hug, she kissed his forehead on the opposite site of the bandage. "Hope that helps you feel better." She said before leaving the room.

Indeed, that did help Lincoln feel better. It had seemed like every interaction with Luna had made him feel better since this all started. She was the one who acted normal. No lying, no awkwardness, just regular Luna being as loud and out there as always. If the him from a few days ago had been given the choice, he might have seriously considered keeping her there all day to tell more random stories than to face his other siblings. But that wasn't the correct way of doing things. Still, it was undeniable that Luna gave him a sense of comfort he didn't feel from Lori earlier.

Not long after Luna left, Lana and Lola entered the room.

"Hey Lincoln, we weren't supposed to, but we snuck this in for you." Lana said. She reached into her pocket and pulled out a small handheld game device. "I figured it was probably boring being stuck in bed all day.

"And while she decided that grab that noisy thing, I brought you some cookies." Lola said. "Sugar always makes me feel better."

"Thanks you two." Lincoln said with a grin. "What have you been up to today?"

"Oh you know, just the basic stuff…" Lola said as she looked away.

Lana rolled her eyes. "Don't let little miss sunshine over here fool you, she was pacing in our room all morning." Lana said with an annoyed tone. "She only had cookies to bring you because she's been baking to try and keep collected."

"LANA!" Lola shouted, her face flushed with red. "Don't throw me under the bus like that!"

"I can't help it if I'm the calm and collected twin." Lana replied.

"Calm and collected my butt, you were just as anxious as I was!"

"Nu uh"

"Oh yeah? Then why don't you tell Linky all about how you nearly freaked out when you noticed that thing's batteries were dead and begged me to give you the batteries from my princess wand."

"Hey! I came to you with that in confidence!"

Lincoln laughed as he watched his younger siblings argue. Normally he would have interjected by now, but this was another valuable moment of normalcy for him. So he wanted to savor it. He grabbed one of Lola's cookies and took a bite.

"There are pretty good." He said through his chews. "And I'm always up for a game or two." He pat both of their heads. "Thanks you two, you always know what I need."

"Apparently more than you do." Lana said with a scough.

"What do you mean?" Lincoln asked.

"She's still mad about yesterday." Lola replied.

"Why shouldn't I be?!" Lana said angrily. "I very clearly told you to take care of yourself and you almost immediately ignored it and banged your head up!"

Lincoln felt bad as he looked at his sisters. Lana was the one vocalizing, but Lola was clearly just as upset by the whole ordeal as she was.

"You're right, I was selfishly careless yesterday." Lincoln said. "You have every right to be angry, is there any way I can make it up to you two?"

"I don't want you to make it up to me Lincoln." Lana replied. "I just want you to stay safe."

"Yeah, If you get hurt, who will dance with me?" Lola added.

"We can't keep you from harm, so all we can really do is remind you to not let it happen to you yourself." Lana looked more sad than angry at this point. "I failed twice already, don't make me fail again."

"Twice?" Lincoln said in a confused tone.

"LANA!" Lola shouted angrily.

Covering her mouth with her hand, Lana quickly darted out.

"What's going on with her?" Lincoln asked as he sat up.

"Don't worry about it." Lola said. She pushed Lincoln back down. "You just rest up, I'll go check on her." Lola left the room and shut the door before Lincoln had time to protest.

" _Just what do they know?"_ Lincoln thought as he chewed on another cookie. He would seriously have to thank Lola for these later. As a shot of sugar, they were surprisingly effective at getting his thoughts pumping. Since they had a meeting, there's a guarantee that Lana and Lola are aware of what had happened to him. Maybe that was an instance where Lana couldn't protect him. If anything, it would prove a reason for her to quiet up as quickly as she did. It doesn't explain Lola though.

"Hey, I'm coming in."

Lincoln looked over to his door and saw Lynn enter.

"Ah, right on time I presume?" He asked.

"Nah, I'm like fifteen minutes late." Lynn replied. "I was practicing my pitch outback and completely lost track of time."

"Don't worry about it." Lincoln said with a chuckle. "You can go back to pitching if you want, I'm just laying here doing nothing."

Lynn's eyes wandered to the door for a second, as if to insulate that she indeed wanted to leave. But her mental struggle ended fairly quickly and she pulled her attention back to Lincoln.

"That's a tempting offer, but I think I'll stay." She sat on the floor and began bouncing the ball off of the wall. "Besides, our sisters would kill me if they found out I just upped and left like that."

"Ah, so that's the reason you're staying." Lincoln laughed again. "Why am I not surprised?"

"I mean, it's definitely _part_ of the reason." Lynn responded. "But I wouldn't say it's the entire reason"

"Oh? And what's the other part of it?" Lincoln asked.

"Are you seriously gonna make me answer questions like that?" Lynn asked. Her voice displaying a taste of annoyment.

"My head's all screwy right now, and you decide to come in and start complaining?" Lincoln pouted. "Humoring me here is the very least you can do."

Lynn let out a snicker. "Ok your majesty, you win." She tossed the ball a few more times.

"Hm, I kinda like that. No wonder Lola enjoys the princess thing so much." Lincoln said with a laugh.

"Do you want me to talk or not?" Lynn said, obviously annoyed.

"Sorry, go ahead."

"I don't like seeing you hurt like that. Especially after Monday." Lynn said.

"Why Monday?" Lincoln asked.

"You beat me in that wrestling match fair and square." Lynn started. "You've never beaten me outside of a surprise attack, that was a really big deal for me. I can't stand the idea of you being defeated by anyone other than me now."

"In other words, you would rather be second best than third?"

"Yes, exactly!" Lynn replied.

"Well at least I know you care about me in some aspect." Lincoln said with a sigh.

Lynn took offense to that comment. "It's not like that and you know it!" She was beginning to show anger on her face. "I'm just no good when it comes to showing emotions…..I'm no good."

"I think you're plenty good Lynn, you're just being too hard on yourself." Lincoln said. "I know you're in here because you're worried about me, it's ok to just say it."

"No it isn't." Lynn insisted. "The tough don't cry."

"I don't need someone who's tough right now. I need my sister. You can go back to being tough later."

Lincoln's words caused Lynn to break down. She buried her head in the blankets of the bed to hide her tears and moans. Lincoln softly rubbed her back as she cried.

"You're like paper, you're not supposed to bleed!" She shouted, her voice muffled by the bed. "What would I ever do if you broke?!"

"I didn't break though, I'm right here. I always will be." Lincoln said as he comforted her.

Lynn spent the remainder of her time in the room in this position. Crying her eyes out while Lincoln rubbed her back. It was uncharacteristic for her to do something like that, but everyone needs to let it all out from time to time. When she was finally able to collect herself, she left almost without a sound. Only saying "Thank you" before she left.

Lincoln didn't have much time to himself between Lynn's exit, and Lisa's entrance. She let herself in without knocking and quickly started taking his vitals.

"Is this really necessary?" He asked, a thermometer sticking out of his mouth.

"For your condition? Negative. I'm mainly taking advantage of the perfect opportunity to conduct a full physical examination for my records." Lisa said. Lincoln watched with interest as she wrote in her clipboard.

"What exactly do you do with all of the data you collect on us anyway?" He asked. In truth, he had always wondered, but it Lisa was always too busy to ever answer questions she would probably deem as trivial.

"It aids me with various tests I conduct, both voluntarily and in secret." She replied. "It's convenient to have exact data on potential test subject prior to the experiment. It saves more time than you realize."

"That's…...reassuring, I guess." Lincoln said.

"Worry not sibling, this data helps ensure that I don't use you for anything life threatening."

As Lisa explained her data collection protocol, he started to get an idea. "You have the details for everyone in the house, right?" He asked.

"That is correct." Lisa replied. "But what is it to you?"

"Say we needed to distinguish who did something based on a description, could your data help figure out who it was?"

Lisa raised an eyebrow. "That could be theoretically possible, but there are several factors that would make it inaccurate." She scribbled a few more lines on her clipboard. "But as Lori explained to you earlier, it was agreed upon that you would be left uninformed for the time being."

"My idea was that obvious huh?" Lincoln asked.

"It couldn't have been more obvious if you spelled it out, most because I doubt you have the phonetic knowledge to do so."

"You're smart, how do you recommend I get through today if none of you will give me answers?"

Lisa turned her attention away from her clipboard and looked at Lincoln directly for the first time since she entered the room. "My advice? Focus on other topics for the time being." She turned back to her clipboard and began to walk off. "It's better to enjoy yourself while you can, the truth may be harder to bare than you are currently ready for." With that, Lisa left the room.

"In like a storm, out like a storm." Lincoln said to himself. She filled him with far more questions than answers, but her advice wasn't so bad. He shouldn't focus on that question. The answer was already promised to him in the note. "Alright, it's settled. I will enjoy the rest of the day with each of my sisters!" Lincoln said happily. "They already went to the trouble of scheduling themselves for me after all ."

Since Lisa left quickly, he had the majority of the hour to himself. He used that time to play the game that Lana had so thoughtfully smuggled to him. It had felt like forever since the last time he fired up a video game, and he almost forgot how much he loved them. The colorful screen, the catchy music, the high difficulty curb, the comfort of the blankets and pillows, it was all perfect. Playing games in bed was definitely the proper way to live life. No arguments about it. He was just about to beat a boss when he heard a voice.

"Having fun there?"

"WAH" Lincoln shouted. He jumped in fright and looked to his side. There was Lucy, standing right next to his bedside.

"How long have you been there?" He asked.

"Ten minutes." She replied.

"Sorry, I guess I got a little too sucked in."

"I'm used to going unnoticed when I enter a room." Lucy said.

"So, write any new poems recently?"

Lucy produced her notebook almost instantly. "I always have something written down, I could use help rhyming though."

"I can help with that." Lincoln said.

"I figured you would." Lucy replied, her lips making a small smile.

"Let's get to it then."

The two spent the entire hour writing poetry together. It was the typical stuff of Lucy. Death, spirits, misery, despair. To most, this would definitely be a bigger cause of depression than joy. But everyone has a hobby of some kind, and this was Lucy's. Besides, Lincoln enjoyed helping her out, even if the subject matter wasn't really his taste.

After writing her last note, Lucy closed her notebook and put her pen away. "Alright, that should cover it all for now."

"Good work there, your writing is definitely improving." Lincoln said.

"Well, someone has to be able to write the high about of dirges this family will require." Lucy replied.

"Alright, just be sure to write mine on your own, it would be weird to assist in my own funeral like that."

"Don't worry Lincoln, I haven't even considered the words for your dirge yet."

Lincoln let out a sigh of relief. 'That's good to know, I don't want you killing me off already." He said half jokingly. "There's far too much for me to accomplish still."

"I welcome my death, but I don't think mortality suits you as well." Lucy said. "You're best when you're alive."

Lucy's words sounded rough, downright morbid in fact. But Lincoln could tell that they had only the best of intentions. Much like Lynn, Lucy was not the greatest at showing her emotions. This was her way of saying she cared, and Lincoln was going to take it for all that it was worth.

"Thanks, I plan to be alive for quite a while." He said.

All Lucy said before leaving was "good." Lincoln knew that she probably wanted to tell him more, but he didn't see a reason to push her. She was already being her bravest by saying what she had.

As Lucy opened the door, Leni quickly slid in. Lincoln smiled a little at that. She must have been waiting outside the door.

"How are you feeling Linky?" Leni asked. "Do you need ice or anything?"

"I'm good, my head isn't hurting that badly anymore." He replied.

"Thank goodness, I was totes worried."

Leni set a tray down in front of Lincoln. A small sandwich and a soda was on it. "I figured you might be hungry." She said, placing down some napkins as well.

"You know, I am pretty famished. Thanks!" Lincoln said. He hadn't eaten anything since Lola gave him the cookies, and several hours had passed since then. He listened to leni talk as he ate. She may had stayed home from school, but her social life definitely didn't take a hit. A lot goes on in the life of the average high school girl apparently.

"And she had the nerve to wear bishop sleeves and leggings, she looked like a pirate!' Leni said enthusiastically.

Lincoln got confused by her comment. "I thought you said that look was acceptable?" He asked.

"That was last week, trends have definitely changed since!" Leni refuted. Fashion was definitely not a field Lincoln understood. It was ever changing, and almost nothing seemed to make sense for a period of time longer than a few hours. Still, he took an effort to at least try to understand the basics.

"So how long does it take for something to go back into style?"

"It depends on what's in style at the moment." Leni said. "You need to match it with something that works well with current trends."

"I see, good to know." Lincoln said, not really grasping any of the information. "Oh yeah, I forgot to return this to you." Lincoln reached into his drawer and pulled out the regal outfit that Leni had sewn around him a few days prior. "Sorry if it got a little wrinkly, I wasn't sure how to fold it properly."

"Oh don't worry about that, I can just steam it later." Leni said as she looked over the garment. "Hmm, where did these water stains come from?"

Lincoln looked at where Leni was pointing. There were distinct spots in the fabric, but he definitely couldn't tell they were caused by water. "That was probably Luan." He replied.

"Luan? She saw you in this?" Leni asked.

"Yeah, she snuck in her the night I was wearing it." He said, thinking nothing of it.

"I see." Leni's voice got a little colder than her usual tone. "Lincoln, do you think you can trust her?"

"What do you mean?"

"Just answer the question."

Lincoln was beginning to feel alarmed. Leni was never this sharp with anything. Even when she was angry she had an airy feel to her. But now, she seemed like a completely different person.

"I trust all of you." He said.

"Don't give me a blanket response, I know for a fact you trust some of us more than others!" She said angrily.

Leni gave Lincoln a glare and held it in place. To say it was intimidating him would be an understatement. It was terrifying. His heart started racing, and sweaty started to crawl down his back.

"W...well…" Lincoln gulped. "I feel like she's mostly trustworthy, as long as it isn't April that is." Lincoln tried to giggle at that comment to soften the mood, but Leni was unamused.

"And compared to our other sisters?" She asked.

Lincoln's comfort level dropped even further "You want me to rank you all?"

"Not all of us, just Luan."

Lincoln wanted out of this situation. He wanted to run far away and wait for things to cool down. Maybe if he pushed hard enough he could get passed Leni and make it for the door? No, she could probably stop well before he made it to the stairs.

Clenching her fist, Leni spoke again. "Compared to me, who do you trust more?"

Lincoln's eyes grew wide. "How can I answer something like that so suddenly?!"

"Just do it, and be honest." She replied. "I can tell if you're lying."

Lincoln's brain went in a thousand directions. Just what outcome would his answer lead him to? He wanted to say he trusted Leni, but at this moment she was the scariest person he had ever seen. He didn't know she was capable of this, so what else was she capable of? Luan wasn't exactly a saint either. Pranks aside, she showcased the full ability to reach him at any moment. This was a hard choice.

" _I can't decide…"_ He thought. He looked back at Leni and met her sharp eyes. He felt like they could stare directly into his soul. _"Why can't someone else be here right now, anyone!"_ Lincoln started thinking about what he would rather be doing than having this conversation, and the people he would rather be doing it with. Just then, he came to a revelation.

"Neither of you." He said.

Leni gritted her teeth. "What does that mean?!"

"I don't have full trust in either of you." He repeated. "If I had to pick a sister I trusted most right now, it would be Luna."

Leni took a step back and lowered her head. "I'm sorry." She said. "I hope you can learn to put your trust in the right people."

Without raising her head, she turned around and left. Lincoln felt awful after this. Leni was also so kind, he never should have said something like that too her. She had just frightened him so much that he couldn't honestly saw he trusted her at that moment. That wasn't entirely the case though. As he thought about it, he gained full confidence in his answer. Out of all of this, Luna was the only one who didn't give him any reason for alarm. And today she was the only one who acted completely normal and just talked. He would put his trust in her any day. But he _did_ still trust his other sisters, he still trusted Leni.

"I hope I can tell her that." Lincoln said to himself as he rested his head in his hands.

Lincoln looked at his clock. It had been nine hours since Lori first checked up on him. The moon was shining through his window, and his lights were on.

"It's evening, and still no answer." He said as looked back at the note from earlier.

He heard a knock on the door. When he asked who it was, Luan's voice came back.

"It's me, can I come in?" She asked.

"Of course." He replied. Lincoln watched as she opened his door and shut it behind her. "Asking before entry is a good gesture, you should try it more often."

"Everything I do is done as a good Jester." She said. "Haha, get it?" Luan started to laugh.

Lincoln didn't find the joke funny, but it made him laugh. It had been a while since he had heard a joke.

"So, to what do I owe this visit?" He asked.

Luan sat close to him on the bed and looked at her knees. "You're gonna hear some things pretty soon, and I wanted to talk to you before that happens." She replied. "I'm sure you already know what I'm referring to."

"I have an idea, yeah." Lincoln said.

Luan looked up at him. "Nothing I did was to hurt you, I would never have tried to hurt you like that!"

Lincoln's skin began to crawl. "Well I was hurt Luan. I was hurt in a worse way than you can possibly imagine!" He was starting to get angry.

"I know, and that's all my fault." She said. "But I would never have done it if I knew it would turn out this way!" Luan grabbed Lincoln's hand and held it in her palms. "The guilt has been eating me alive ever since. I've been trying to act normal, but I just can't."

Lincoln slapped her hands away and pulled his arms back. "Excuse me if I lack sympathy for your guilty conscience." He snarled. "I just can't seem to find a damn to give."

"Lincoln, listen...please." Luan said.

"Listen to what?! A confession that makes you out to be the real victim?" He said angrily. "I can't believe you even have the nerve, Leni was right about you."

A ghastly look formed on Luan's face. "Leni? What did _she_ say?"

"What does it matter to you? Does it somehow change things?" Lincoln said in a mocking tone.

"Lincoln, you don't get it, Leni and I-"

"What? Had a falling out because she tried to keep me safe from your actions?!"

Luan started to choke up. "...well.."

"Well what? Am I wrong?"

Lincoln watched as Luan fiddled around in front of him.

"Yes and no…" She started.

Filled with rage, Lincoln put his hands on Luan's shoulders and started to shake her.

"Quit fucking with me and come out with it already!" He shouted.

"OK!" She shouted. Tears started falling down Luan's cheeks, but she managed to speak clearly. "I'm in love with you, I have been for a while, but when I tried to confide in our older sisters, I found out that Leni was too." Luan wiped her eyes and look directly into Lincoln's. "The two of us haven't really been able to get along after that, but of course we couldn't tell you or anyone why."

Lincoln froze. He couldn't believe the words he was hearing. Leni and Luan…felt for, him?

"How...why…" Lincoln tried to process it, but he just couldn't.

"Things came to an all time low after I messed up the way I did." She continued. "She really hasn't been my biggest fan since that, but we couldn't bring ourselves to confront you with it. We were all too worried about you." Before giving Lincoln time to respond, Luan slid behind him and latched onto his back, laying her arms across his chest. "But no matter what she says, I still love you too much to harm you."

"But you just said you did it!" Lincoln started.

"No she didn't Lincoln." Said a voice. Lincoln looked over to his door way and saw Lori standing there, with the rest of his sister standing behind her. "Luan isn't the one who….who raped you."

"If she wasn't, then why is she feeling so much guilt?" He asked.

All of his sisters looked at their feet. After what seemed like an eternity of silence, Lana finally spoke up.

"We all have been feeling guilty, because we're all partly responsible for it." She said. "If it wasn't for me, she never would have learned how to tie you down." Tears were forming in her eyes. "I should have protected you better, but I didn't even know it wasn't going to happen, honest."

"I was blackmailed into creating the letters you received." Lucy said. "It was painful, but my hands were completely tied."

"I had to give some of my fake nails, if I didn't all of my pageant dresses would have been torched." Lola added, equally as broken up.

"I showed her the best pinning techniques. I wasn't even aware that I was secretly training her for what she eventually did to you. I just wanted a sparring partner." Lynn said.

"I left the mask out, which lead to it's theft and use in the crime." Lisa added. "My negligence lead to me being an accessory to this whole ordeal, and for that I am sorry." She was acting collected, but she was shaking just enough to show it was all a facade.

"And what's about you?" Lincoln asked Lori.

"I did something far worse than most of them, I knew this could have happened and I didn't stop it." She said sadly. "I let you all down, especially Luan." Lori looked over at her sister, who was burying her face in Lincoln's neck. "If I just spoke up, I could have saved her from the pain of being forced to teach your real attacker how to break into your room."

"That's what Luan did?" Lincoln said.

"Yes." Luan replied with a sniff. "If it wasn't for me, none of this would have happened. You would have been completely safe."

"This doesn't answer my question though, who did it?" Lincoln asked.

Leni walked to the center of the room. She glared at Luan for a bit, but her expression softened as she turned her attention to Lincoln.

"That's the painful truth in all of this." She started. "The person who victimized you, the sister who hurt you the most, was the one who you claim to trust the most."

Lincoln's heart stopped. His eyes got so wide he felt like they could pop out of his skull.

"...Luna?" He said softly. "It was Luna?"

None of his sisters replied, but their expressions gave him is answer. When he looked to her, he wasn't sure what he felt. Shock, disgust, anger, all three? All he knew was heartbreak.

"Why?" He asked. His voice completely emotionless.

"I...I was trying to one up Luan and Leni." Luna said. "They wanted you so badly that I figured, if I took you, then neither of them would be able to claim they got you first." Luna looked around the room and saw nothing but the sharpest of stares from all except Lincoln, who was still in too much shock to show emotion. "It was a lapse in judgement, but the taboo of it gave me a rush. When I thought of it, I just couldn't stop myself. I probably would have done it a few more times if Lori didn't threaten me."

"And what did you expect?!" Lori said angrily. "You came to me beforehand and told me your plan, when I said I wouldn't let you, I didn't think you would force our other sisters to play along with it against their wills!"

"You're just lucky we Linky feels so strongly about you, or you would be in a body bag right now!" Leni shouted.

"How long have you all known?" Lincoln asked.

"I knew since before it happened." Lori said. "Lucy and Luan are the only others who were aware of it before our meeting last night."

"Look little bro, I'm-"

"STAY AWAY FROM ME!" Lincoln shouted. Luna jumped back. "I don't want to talk to you, not for a long time!" Lincoln started to cry. "I trusted you, you were the one who was acting normal to me, but you were just sick. You were fucking with me this whole time." As Lincoln spoke, he felt Luan's grip get tighter, he had forgot that she was there. He turned his attention to Leni. "Did you have anything to do with this?

"No! Lori and Luan told me what had happened on Sunday night after you locked yourself in your room." She said. "I would never have taken part in something so awful."

Lincoln looked at each of his sisters, and then back to Luna. "I want all of you to leave me for right now. I need to talk to Leni and Luan for a bit." As they started to leave, Lincoln stopped them. "Whatever you do, don't hurt Luna. I'm hurt with her, but I still love her."

"But Lincoln she-"

"No Lana. I don't want any of my precious sisters getting hurt. Even if they're capable of hurting me."

Those words caused Luna to feel the first instance of guilt since she had decided to rape him. He was so sweet, and yet she treated him like a cheap sex toy. The death stares from her sisters didn't make things any better. If it wasn't for Lincoln, she likely would have been beat down as soon as the door shut. _"Just like him."_ She thought. _"Thinking of others even to the bitter end."_

One they were alone, Lincoln called Leni over.

"I want you two to get along again." He said. "I know this is a difficult situation, to be honest, I don't fully understand it myself. But my only wish after all of this is for life to go back to normal, and that can't happen if you're both fighting over me in secret."

"Then, what are you going to do about our feelings?" Luan asked.

"Yeah Lincoln, we can't just throw them away." Leni added.

Lincoln smiled a little. "I don't expect you to throw them away, honestly they make me feel a little happy." He replied. "But I don't know if I can answer them either. I just lost my childhood over the course of a few days. I need some more time before I can think about something as heavy as this." Seeing that they were both down, he patted their heads. "But that isn't a definite no to either of you. And even if it was, you will still always have my love."

He hugged the both of them, and they remained in the embrace for what seemed like forever.

Lincoln had been through a lot of painful experiences recently, so he wanted to truly enjoy this happy experience before returning to the real world. And who knows, he may even be able to forgive Luna after a while. Grudges weren't a good color on him anyway.

The End

* * *

 **What begins with an illness ends with an illness. In the process of writing this, I grew incredibly sick and was basically unable to get anything done for over a week. Even my job proved tough to do. But I finally managed to finish this thing.**

 **The story has officially come to a close. I would like to thank each and every one of you for taking this journey with me, it certainly was an odd one. I never thought in a million years that I would write fanfiction again, let alone finish a story. So hopefully this rusty early 20's something fool managed to entertain you all.**

 **How was the final reveal? I originally intended to put in way more hints that it was Luna, but that sort of fell out with a lot of other ideas that didn't make their way into the final chapters.**

 **As for what's next for me, I'm not sure. I have another story in progress, one that is much softer, and with the outline, it will probably be finished quickly. I don't know if this story really needs a follow up, and I don't have any plans to begin work on a third story. But it isn't out of the question. If I get inspiration for something new, I will put it up.**

 **Other than that, thanks again for reading. I hope you enjoyed this, and see you next time.**


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